Christmas Doesn’t Come Too Early For Shoppers

We moseyed around one of the big suburban malls over
Veteran’s Day weekend. Sales were
rocking a major department store while shoppers bagged bargains. Amidst it all
was a plethora of red-dominated and light-sprinkled decorations for the
Holiday-Previously-Known-As-Christmas.

Nobody seemed to mind.

Everybody knows the holidays start in November (read late
October in some cases.) But when a year’s success depends on the last few weeks
of the year, what’s a retailer to do?
And while there’s an annual spate of pundit whining that it’s all too
early, the shoppers we talked to over the weekend were buying gifts – and glad
to get a start on it.

“Early” holidays reflect a Yaffe principle. We encourage our
clients to boldly borrow sales from the future – eliminating spending
resistance and driving business NOW. It is a necessary tactic in today’s
competitive markets and lackluster economies.

But we believe shoppers have a lot to gain as well.

Certainly the values are great. But we don’t know many households that aren’t
strapped for time, and stretching a season’s length can help. Mom, the primary
holiday-maker in most homes, has more on her plate than ever. Giving her a sense of more time is
appreciated.