Walking into a store before Halloween looking for autumn merchandise is logical, right? Yet I stroll unassumingly into the Westerville Meijer and find Christmas coffee creamer and candy already filling the shelves.
I do not even want to think about shopping for Christmas until after Halloween is out of the way. I find it so strange how holiday retail is stocked in some places at the beginning of September.
I think Christmas is a time that is already too commercialized. Many might agree, and many have voiced this opinion. To me, every year gets a little worse — I see cheaper, tackier items in the stores.
It seems that no matter how many movies are made telling us Christmas is not about the shopping, we still buy into the idea that the most important part is the stuff.
To some extent, I can condone this. Generosity blooms around Christmas, and often the items we buy have more worth than just dollars. Generosity, however, is a virtue which retailers take advantage of. The need for gifts and decorations is pushed at us starting as early as September.
On the other hand, I understand why merchandise is put out early. According to the National Retail Federation, approximately 40 percent of consumers begin shopping for Christmas before Halloween. Shoppers like to compare prices and look for sales, so the more time they have to do that, the better off stores will be.
Retailers would obviously want to cater to this 40 percent of shoppers and try to fill their needs. Retailers need to make money, and the NRF has found that 25-40 percent of annual sales are made during the holiday season. That is a large portion of the year and very important for the people who work during the holidays. Some stores donate to charities, so some of that money we spend could be going to a good cause.
Maybe it is not the stores that are the trouble, but the people. We are the ones who are starting to shop in September, who are buying into all of the tacky, cheap merchandise that is presented to us. If people did not buy it, the stores would not sell it. If they did not buy it in September, it would not be available then.
We are also the ones who generously donate to charities and soup kitchens more than usual around the holidays. Instead of complaining about Christmas items being in stores already, we can have some early Christmas spirit. Let it be an inspiration to be generous with the people around us.
However, I draw the line at music. No Christmas music allowed until Thanksgiving, at least in my house.
