Christmas stock comes earlier every year

"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.

Sydney's KPop adventure

The whole reason the House o'Squid (minus selvage but plus selvage) trekked up (or down) to Sydney over the weekend was for the KPop Music Fest taking place on Saturday night. It's the first time any KPop artists have performed in Australia, and although it was officially to celebrate 50 years of friendship between Australia and South Korea, it seems likely it was also testing the waters for both the Korean-speaking market here and potential interest among English speakers. (A similar event was recently held in Madison Square Garden, and Girls' Generation have just released their new single in English as well as Korean.)

Most of my knowledge of KPop comes via piecesofalice, but I made an attempt beforehand to get to know every artist on the bill. And failed miserably, mostly because "Lucifer" is a really amazing song, but playing it over and over again doesn't exactly familiarise a person with, say, 2AM. But considering I knew only a third of the artists, and I don't speak Korean, the concert was amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing.

( Lots of recaps and embeds beyond the cut. )