Bet you are seeing holiday stuff out now. Wife found out something

[redirish28]

Okay, how many of us moan and complain about Christmas/holiday stuff happening earlier and earlier?


my wife is seeing stores decorate for the holiday. And as my wife was checking out hearing christmas songs she groaned why so early. It isn't Thanksgiving.


The woman laughed understandably and then explained what people don't realize is that we are preparing and selling for those people who only get paid once a month.


And it does make sense. By pushing the start of Christmas sales right after Halloween you are in a sense giving people 2 paychecks to shop for christmas as oppose to one.


Don't like the idea but it does make sense from a stores point of view.

[Angry Dragon]

1. It also gives people with no paycheck more time to shop

[stopbush]

2. The "Xmas is coming earlier and earlier" meme has been disproved

in any number of studies.

It just one of those urban myths that gives us "always bitching about something" Americans something more to bitch about.

[Jane Austin]

3. I am a retailer - a small business owner -

and I can tell you why Christmas stuff is out now.

Ornaments, stockings, cards and decorations are shown at the "Christmas" trade shows in January - just a couple of weeks after Christmas.

This gives the manufacturer time to see what retailers are ordering so they will know what to order - generally from overseas - in advance.

Incentives (discounts) are given to buyers who place orders by March 31.

The manufacturers then place their orders with the factories - usually overseas.

It takes several months to get the molds made and enough product produced to ship to retailers.

Product is delivered to US warehouses starting in the summer, and vendors start shipping it to retailers no later than September.

Retailers have to pay for it within 30, 60 or 90 days - depending on how much they order.

If we get ornaments in August (which were ordered in January in order to get discounts) we have to start selling them right away so we can pay for them on time.

Additionally, if we sell out of a popular item by October, we have a chance to reorder that item in time to sell more before Christmas.

If we didn't start selling until after Thanksgiving, there would be no chance to reorder.

This is all because things ordered from factories overseas are ordered by the container-load, not by the case.

When an American vendor orders a popular item to be made, say a Golden Retriever Nutcracker ornament, they have to order thousands at a time, and they may get several containers (shipping crates the size of boxcars) or even a boat load at a time.

They can't hope to sell all of those products in the three or four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Considering that the company has had their money tied up since the previous January or March, they have to get busy shipping them to retailers and getting paid asap.

It's not an evil plot to make you nuts or to make you hate Christmas, it's just that economies of scale require a much longer lead time.

We do sell handmade ornaments made in the USA, but delivery is slowish and they cost about twice as much. We truly wish there were more available for us to sell.

Hope that explains things.

[kctim]

4. Apparently

being a retailer doesn't qualify you to be in any studies to disprove urban myths.

:rofl:


Thx for the info.

[blondeatlast]

5. For most mass retailers, with the likely exception of home improvement stores, November/

December are simply make-it/break-it time. Hate it all you wnat, but millions of jobs depend on two months out of the year.

[Urban Prairie]

6. My first FT job after HS graduation in the summer of '74

Was working as a sales stock clerk for Saks 5th Avenue near downtown Detroit, and if I remember correctly, at this time of year the upscale retailer would already be displaying men's and women's resort-wear fashions for the jet-setting, old-money Grosse Pointe blue-bloods who took "much-deserved" vacations/retreats to outrageously expensive and exotic areas in the tropics, beginning after the coming New Year's Day holiday.