In the store, a woman passed me, frantically looking for some last minute Christmas item. "Where is the Christmas stuff?" she wondered.
Yes, where was the Christmas stuff? In the place where the holiday items are usually displayed, we found this:
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No, your eyes do not deceive you. Those are Valentine's Day candies. Now, I'm not complaining. Any candy on display is an empirical good, and we are in the midst of Candy Season. In fact, I rather enjoyed seeing a Valentine's Day display up before Christmas. Usually, we complain that Christmas items appear just after the Fourth of July or some such ridiculous time of year. Having another holiday trump Christmas seemed rather like sweet poetic justice.
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6 comments:
I love the idea of buying valentine's candy as a last minute Christmas gift!
Had the same experience...was sort of shocked to see the Valentine's stuff at first. But decided it didn't make me as angry as the Christmas stuff up at Halloween. ;) Plus, who wouldn't want a lovely chocolate-filled heart for Christmas?
That does seem kind of hasty - what happened to the immediate post-Christmas bargain sales where everything NOT sold for Christmas gets marked down?
A Hallmark store a couple of miles from our house features all of those holidays, of course.
Except, the proprietor decided to retire. The store closes at the end of February. Slow Christmas, the sales started in mid-December. Great bargains on Christmas stuff now. Valentine's Day? No, that stuff is roped off -- full price, at least for a while. And Easter?
Uh-uh. Store's closing. Wholesalers and manufacturers won't ship Easter stuff for fear it won't sell, and they won't get paid.
In commerce, not only is there not much rising from the dead, sometimes the almost-dead get kicked and told to hurry it up.
I have a friend who works for Russell Stover. She is processing orders at least three to four months ahead of the actual holiday. If she doesn't have the candy and displays for the next holiday up immediately after the last one ends her clients are screaming.
Also, remember that not everyone celebrates Christmas. Did they at least wait until the Hanukkah gelt was no longer needed?
Mmmmm, Russell Stover!
Funny that you should mention Hanukkah. This particular store has a fairly large Jewish clientele -- large enough to have a kosher aisle. They sometimes have smaller displays of items for some of the holy days, usually nowhere near the items for the predominantly Christian holidays. For instance, they had cakes and dreidles filled with gelt for Hanukkah. I'm going to start keeping an eye out for the rhythms of the seasons and the marketing there. I wonder how their response there corresponds to the presence of Jews in their management, to the manufacturers, and to the demands of their Jewish customer base. Theoretically -- based on my limited knowledge -- shouldn't they have Passover items out if they have Easter items out?
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