Is it Halloween yet?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

A few minutes ago I looked out from my bedroom window and saw that my neighbor a block away has already decorated his yard for Halloween, complete with seemingly hundreds of orange lights. I LOVE Halloween, but even I think it's a bit early. But I applaud his initiative!! 

[Gerard]

I stopped at our local Walgreen's yesterday to buy toothpaste.  Christmas stuff is already on the shelves.

Gerard

[Brandon Collins]

I love Halloween, and usually I wait until around 10/1 to start decorating. But for some reason this year I have been wanting to start super early. I went a few places last week looking for decorations and was disappointed to find that the retail world is not quite prepared for Halloween just yet.

Even more disturbing is, like Gerard pointed out, the fact that some stores actually have Christmas on the shelves. I'm not surprised because I used to work in retail. We used to start getting Christmas in on our trucks around the middle of July.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I went a few places last week looking for decorations and was disappointed to find that the retail world is not quite prepared for Halloween just yet.

I feel bad for you because around here several stores are already carrying Halloween merchandise. In fact, I've already bought two new Halloween decorations, which leads me to the fact that -

usually I wait until around 10/1 to start decorating.

- I usually wait until 10/1 too. But I'm dying to put out my new things, so I've decided that this year, despite the fact that it will be a week earlier than normal, I'm going to start putting my Halloween decorations out on 9/23, which is the first day of fall. I figure so long as I wait until it's officially fall, it's OK. 

[Brandon Collins]

The stores I visited had some Halloween things, but their selection was extremely limited and I could tell that they were still working on receiving and stocking these items. Typically we have a Spirit Halloween store nearby but the space it occupies caught on fire last year so the nearest store is about 45 minutes away, at least. I did happen upon a Halloween City (an extension of Party City I'm guessing) and even their selection was pretty poor last weekend. They had plenty of space for merchandise but no product to fill it!

I can tell you that from a retail standpoint, Halloween has been focused on less and less each year even though it is a $9 billion holiday. It used to be that Halloween would pack seasonal departments just as much as Christmas would in the stores. But that is not really the case these days. Also, Halloween is considered a "last minute" holiday due to the consumer usually waiting until the end of the month to buy candy, décor, and costumes in a hurry before the big day arrives. It was not unusual for us to have a ton of Halloween stuff left on 10/29, only to look like we were going out of business by the evening hours of 10/31.

[patrickm]

The early decorating post reminds me of a sketch from Mike and Molly where they were getting on him for not doing chores. He said it is like him leaving the outdoor Christmas lights up all year. Most of the time the neighbors consider him a lazy load but come Labor Day, he is the neighborhood go getter...lol.

[Annie]

I love Halloween it’s my favorite . But most of all Easter and
Christmas mean a lot to me ❤️😊
Love Anne

[Gerard]

I remember, as a kid, when preparation for Halloween didn't being until early or mid-October.  Other than costumes and candy, there was nothing else.  Oh, don't forget the pumpkins.  My dad would carve one out into a Jack-O-Lantern the day before.  No mention of Christmas.

A few weeks later, on TV, there were adds for turkey for Thanksgiving.  No mention of Christmas.

The day after Thanksgiving, there was no "Black Friday."  Malls and stores opened at their normal time with a couple sales.  No mention of Christmas.

Maybe into the first of second week of December, commercials would appear on television.  One year, I saved up seven dollars in quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies to do my Christmas shopping which we did a a family at one local department store. 

No earlier than two weeks before Christmas would A Charlie Brown Christmas air.   

Now, on 12/26, when people return gifts to get $$$$, Valentine's stuff is getting up on the shelves as the unsold Christmas stuff is priced down for clearance. 

Gerard

[Brandon Collins]

The push for Christmas has certainly changed over the years, that's for sure! I spent about 12 years in retail during my early career, and by the time I left this was the schedule for seasonal merch:

January 1 - Valentine's must be set.
February 15 - Easter is stocked.
March/April - Summer patio, beach, grilling (earlier if Easter is earlier)
May - Back to school
September - Halloween
October - Christmas, as Halloween sells down
December - Valentine's as Christmas sells down.

When I tell you that the timeline is completely unreasonable and next to impossible a lot of the time, I'm not exaggerating. In fact, the above time frames were when we had to have a complete stock of product on the sales floor. But often we were receiving product much earlier, i.e. Christmas may have arrived starting in early August.

But, Halloween was always my favorite and it pained me to see less and less of it each year.

[Josette]

That sounds about when I see things in the stores, except for the May for Back to School.  May, the old year is still ending - I don't think they ever start that soon!

[Brandon Collins]

That sounds about when I see things in the stores, except for the May for Back to School.  May, the old year is still ending - I don't think they ever start that soon!

Oddly enough that is when we would get school supplies in, but we wouldn't usually put them out until about mid-June, which is when the schools in my area actually let out for the summer. What's really funny about all of this is that most people never shop early, they always wait until the last minute for things so most of this seasonal stuff will just sit there and warm the shelves until the week or two before it needs to be bought.

Nevertheless, this weekend is go time for me regarding Halloween. I am going all out and putting up those decorations! I've waited long enough!

[Gerard]

Back in the stone ages, when I was in elementary school, on the first day (Tuesday after Labor Day). we kiddies were given a list of what we needed.  The schools didn't provide supplies - parents were expected to.  In the early evening off we went to the local department store to pick up everything from crayons to pencil holders and everything in-between.  We'd get a "school-bag" (no backpacks back then) to carry it all in. 

School began.  We'd doodle on rubber and gum erasers and drill holes in them with pencils and pens.  We had a "tablet" known today as a "notebook."  At Thanksgiving, four days off.  At Christmas, two weeks.  At Easter, one week.  No make-up days for snow days.  Memorial Day weekend, school ended.  Summer school was for this kids who failed courses and had to make them up or else get flunked and held back.  No classes to make things out of clay that all ended up as ashtrays.

School was school, not a babysitting or daycare service

Gerard