Christmas stock comes earlier every year

[lizbee]

"It's only [insert month  here]!  Why are the shops putting out Christmas stock already?  IT CONFLICTS WITH MY PERSONAL TIMELINE FOR APPROPRIATE HOLIDAY FESTIVITIES!"

Here is an answer from someone who has worked in retail:

The Christmas season means higher sales all around, so stores order their usual ranges in higher quantities, plus the seasonal products.  Orders are placed well in advance to ensure the desired quantities arrive on time, because no one wants to come into December and find you're all out of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and the supplier can't fill your order because they, too, are out of stock and awaiting the next print run. 

Stores have finite storage space, and over-filling it is obviously not going to be helpful for anyone.  So stock gets put out on the floor.  By mid-December (if you're in a bookstore) books will be in floorstacks, the only time of the year when such a thing is permissible.  By late October, Christmas stock is starting to appear because there's nowhere else for it to go.  And frankly, with the huge quantities of Christmas stock that stores receive, you'd be an idiot to try and put it all out at once. 

So now you know.

On the other hand, there is no excuse whatsoever for playing Christmas music in November, and the people (usually area managers who don't actually work in stores and don't have to listen to "Last Christmas" 18 times a day) who insist on it should be shot.

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

But why do they insist on selling hot cross buns in November? That's what I really want to know.

[lizbee]

That one, I totally cannot explain or justify. It certainly didn't happen back when I worked in bakeries. (Mostly because OMG DON'T TALK TO US ABOUT EASTER, WE HAVE TO FIND A WAY TO ARRANGE 80 CHRISTMAS PUDDINGS SO THAT THEY DON'T COLLAPSE AND KILL A CUSTOMER.)

[tree_and_leaf]

Particularly as tea cakes are virtually identical anyway, except for the crucial seasonal detail...

[nineveh_uk]

Because they're really nice!

[nineveh_uk]

And tea-cakes are not identical. Tea cakes are much lighter in texture, more light a light fruit bread, whereas HBCs are more doughy and yeasty.

[rhivolution]

Thanks for the insight.

Last Christmas: worst Christmas song? y/y? I mean, ffs, it's about a breakup.

[lizbee]

Great song, terrible as a Christmas song, yes.

[tree_and_leaf]

But it's not as terrible as "Fairytale of New York" (which, again, is a great song, just not terribly festive...)

[tree_and_leaf]

Though the one that makes me homicidal just as a shopper is Slade's "Merry Xmas everyone"...

[lizbee]

I have a really embarrassing love for that song.

On the other hand, one day I swear I will make a DW Christmas special vid to "Christmas Number One" by The Black Arts:

[tree_and_leaf]

Hm, that one's not so much embarrassing as a useful survival mechanism...

[amberfox]

No, no, I nominate "Baby It's Cold Outside" for worst holiday-time song ever. Pressure, coercion, and possible drugged drinks. What could say Christmas better than that?

[delphi]

I turn slightly murderous if forced to listen to "Christmas Shoes" at any time, let alone in November, but I am all about the holiday sweets coming out early. That Ghirardelli peppermint bark? Oh yes.

[lizbee]

I'm quite lucky, in that "Christmas Shoes" has never penetrated Australia. But everything I've heard about it makes me RAGE.

[haruka]

On the other hand, there is no excuse whatsoever for playing Christmas music in November

I live in Canada, and the other holidays are over now, so Christmas is next in line and I'm happy to start celebrating it right after Halloween. :)

[lilacsigil]

My shop put the Christmas decorations up last week so that it's Christmassy enough and we don't have to play Christmas songs! Independent retail FTW!

[st_aurafina]

Woman talking to pharmacist (me) at back of the shop: Oh, your decorations are so pretty!
Same woman talking to sales assistants up the front: You've put your decorations up far too early!
Sales assistants and me, conferring later: WTF?

We tried Christmas carols in the shop once. Never again.

[purple_smurf]

I kind of love Christmas music a whole lot -- my Christmas music playlist as it stands right now is 1119 songs, 2.4 days, and 4.99GB.

But that's the point: I have a vast and varied collection and don't have to listen to the same damn version of Last Christmas more than once every couple of days. (Yes, I have 10 versions of Last Christmas. But one is by Florence + the Machine, and you can't tell me you don't have the Billie Piper version.)

[lizbee]

OF COURSE I HAVE THE BILLIE PIPER VERSION! What, do you think I'm a philistine?!

I don't suppose you'd care to share the Florence and the Machine version?

[purple_smurf]

Christmas is for giving after all! (hxxp -> http)

(It's a live version, but it's also Florence and the Machine performing Last Christmas)

[amberfox]

When I worked at a bookstore, we mostly got around Christmas music with the soundtrack to the Peanut's Christmas special, which most American have kind of fluffy feelings about. My most recent retail Christmas kicked over to Christmas music at midnight on Halloween, and between that and the singing yard decorations, I was ready to start taking a box cutter to the Christmas decorations by Thanksgiving.

My personal best for early decorating/stocking? August. I saw the full set of Christmas glitz up at a Target one year, the next aisle over from the big summer's-end school supply section.

[el_staplador]

WE'RE STILL PRACTISING FOR ADVENT. (Which is far more fun, anyway.)

[tree_and_leaf]

Yay, Advent! Best season for music EVAR!

[nixwilliams]

oh man, i hate christmas music in shops. (n.b. i am a grumpy atheist, but i do actually like carols and community carol singing! just not piped muzak!)

[marymac]

We had in-store radio in one job, broadcast over internet from head office. The year the they started with the Christmas stuff a week before Halloween (and refused to even put 'I want an Alien for Christmas' on the playlist) the deputy manager "accidentally" spilled a pot of tea over the PA unit.

[dancing_moon]

I don't mind the general build-up of loads and loads of stuff, but I would happily not see advent calenders and glühwein stuff in freaking October.