Clintons are selling Christmas cards already

[Feedingthebirds1]

And you can't even avoid them. They're not tucked away in a corner, they're a huge window display.

FFS it's nearly six months to Christmas, leave us alone.

And I know there'll be people who think it's great, they can get everything done well ahead, but I'm definitely not one of them. I like Christmas but I'd be happy if it didn't start until 1st December at the earliest.

AIBU?

@Illogicalmadness

Round my way, the earliest I've seen Xmas cards has been late Aug (national trust) & early Sept. Never before the school summer holidays.

I’m a regional manager for a large card retailer in the UK. We have put Christmas Cards out in June/July for the last ten years at the very least, as have all of our major competitors.

If you live in an area with a Clinton’s or a Card Factory then they have and you just haven’t noticed.

@Gh0stontoast

I don’t buy anything from Clinton Cards.

Many many years ago there was a piece about them in the financial section of a Sunday paper and the two founders bragged that when they started out in the wholesale trade they would send out slightly less then was ordered. Sharp practice - no thanks.

@Gh0stontoast It’s not owned by the same people anymore. It was bought over when they went into administration

@Feedingthebirds1 Card shop manager for 7 years here 🙋🏻‍♀️ As @doyouneedtowean has said...this is absolutely nothing new. June/July is completely normal for the big retailers. We’re they selling in some kind of promotion for there to be a big window display OP?

There is a huge number of people that stock up on Christmas cards etc in the Boxing Day sales - so all that stock will still be left sitting from last year due to lockdown. I would be surprised at any shops NOT running some kind of early promotion to target the early shoppers and try to clear some of that excess stock!

Christmas is supposedly to be an enjoyable and seasonal time, for me that means it starts and ends in December!

People who spend months planning, prepping, buying then months after paying for it seem to miss this aspect and appear to me as purely victims of a mass corporation marketing scam.

Pret have Christmas Lunch sandwiches on their online menu.

Ah this has made me very excited. Christmas is my favourite time of year and this year we’re going to have a squishy newborn again!

I work picking books and they are Christmas picks everyday for the last few weeks

Christmas seems to be coming earlier every year, everyone had the decorations up in November last year!

@DoormatBob

Christmas is supposedly to be an enjoyable and seasonal time, for me that means it starts and ends in December!

People who spend months planning, prepping, buying then months after paying for it seem to miss this aspect and appear to me as purely victims of a mass corporation marketing scam.

I don't think it's that, Christmas is associated with all the best feelings and memories, it makes people happy.

Summer sales are on

Stores are soon to be receiving Xmas stock. When shelves are empty and warehouse full of Xmas stuff then it makes sense to get it out on sale

We took a delivery of 120 Xmas pallets on Monday ☃️

@DoormatBob

Christmas is supposedly to be an enjoyable and seasonal time, for me that means it starts and ends in December!

People who spend months planning, prepping, buying then months after paying for it seem to miss this aspect and appear to me as purely victims of a mass corporation marketing scam.

Christmas is my happy place, like a little mental retreat if you will. I like planning, shopping, prepping. It keeps me going. I was exceptionally glad I'd planned, shopped and prepped last year when we had an utterly horrific time from early November onwards. I've never felt a victim of a mass corporate marketing scam. 🤷‍♀️

Ah great. I hate Christmas. My son was stillborn on Christmas Day and I feel like I can never get away from it.

@Flambola

Ah great. I hate Christmas. My son was stillborn on Christmas Day and I feel like I can never get away from it.

I am, so, so sorry for the loss. Of your precibany boy 💙

Thanks for the info @waitingforwinter, can safely go into a Clinton’s Card store now.

I suppose the logical outcome of all this will be that eventually Christmas cards & Easter eggs are side by side in the shops all year round. And then we’ll have creme eggs as stocking fillers.

There is a huge number of people that stock up on Christmas cards etc in the Boxing Day sales - so all that stock will still be left sitting from last year due to lockdown. I would be surprised at any shops NOT running some kind of early promotion to target the early shoppers and try to clear some of that excess stock!

Yep, I am lucky in that I work in a supermarket so we managed to sell through our Christmas stock by late January this year (normally the shelves would have been emptied by bargain hunters by January 3rd) because we were allowed to be open. My friend, who is a manager of a gift shop, still has shelves full of Christmas stock from last year because they weren't allowed to open and couldn't get rid of it. When they were allowed to reopen they needed to get maximum customer sales asap so put out all the new, spring/summer lines to get the sales they needed to stay open, and all the Christmas stock was put back into storage.

The options now are either a) try and sell some of it early - little and often - and clear the space in her back room for other stock, including this year's Christmas stock that will be starting to arrive in the next month or so, or b) hold onto it until later in the year and then try and sell twice as much Christmas stuff all at once and potentially be left with it all again, making the time and money storing it wasted.

@melj1213

There is a huge number of people that stock up on Christmas cards etc in the Boxing Day sales - so all that stock will still be left sitting from last year due to lockdown. I would be surprised at any shops NOT running some kind of early promotion to target the early shoppers and try to clear some of that excess stock!

Yep, I am lucky in that I work in a supermarket so we managed to sell through our Christmas stock by late January this year (normally the shelves would have been emptied by bargain hunters by January 3rd) because we were allowed to be open. My friend, who is a manager of a gift shop, still has shelves full of Christmas stock from last year because they weren't allowed to open and couldn't get rid of it. When they were allowed to reopen they needed to get maximum customer sales asap so put out all the new, spring/summer lines to get the sales they needed to stay open, and all the Christmas stock was put back into storage.

The options now are either a) try and sell some of it early - little and often - and clear the space in her back room for other stock, including this year's Christmas stock that will be starting to arrive in the next month or so, or b) hold onto it until later in the year and then try and sell twice as much Christmas stuff all at once and potentially be left with it all again, making the time and money storing it wasted.

@melj1213 Yeah it’s been horrendous for so many retailers (and other businesses) this past year!! They need to do anything they can do now to try and recoup some of those loses! Selling it early - little and often, is definitely the way to go!

Good for them (Clinton's Cards). Anything they can do to keep afloat and keep their employees employed in these uncertain times is to be applauded. Loudly.

Yeah it’s been horrendous for so many retailers (and other businesses) this past year!! They need to do anything they can do now to try and recoup some of those loses!
Selling it early - little and often, is definitely the way to go!

Exactly - keeping Christmas stock in the back room means that 0% of it gets sold and therefore it is making £0 for the company and is taking up room that could be used for products that will actually sell and make money.

Putting some of it out on the shop floor, even drastically out of season, means that if even just one item is sold every week then that inventory is slowly being sold and making some money, which means the space in freed up in the stockroom for stuff that will make more profit which makes more money in the long run.

Equally, if you put out Christmas stuff now then you get people coming inside to have a look to see if it is on sale etc which then means that, even if they don't buy the Christmas stuff, they might see something else and buy that instead which adds to the sales they would not otherwise have had.

@melj1213

Yeah it’s been horrendous for so many retailers (and other businesses) this past year!! They need to do anything they can do now to try and recoup some of those loses! Selling it early - little and often, is definitely the way to go!

Exactly - keeping Christmas stock in the back room means that 0% of it gets sold and therefore it is making £0 for the company and is taking up room that could be used for products that will actually sell and make money.

Putting some of it out on the shop floor, even drastically out of season, means that if even just one item is sold every week then that inventory is slowly being sold and making some money, which means the space in freed up in the stockroom for stuff that will make more profit which makes more money in the long run.

Equally, if you put out Christmas stuff now then you get people coming inside to have a look to see if it is on sale etc which then means that, even if they don't buy the Christmas stuff, they might see something else and buy that instead which adds to the sales they would not otherwise have had.

@melj1213 Exactly!! I’m glad this makes sense to some people 😅 trying to explain this to staff in some shops I went into when I was filling in as an area manger was a nightmare! Some of the managers were about as much use as a chocolate teapot 🙈😂

“Where is the new gift range that came in?”
“It wasn’t selling very quickly so I took it off”
“Did you try remerchandising it alongside something else? Put it on browsing tables? Incorporate it in the window? Contact me about trying a promotion?”
“Ehhhh, no”
“So what DID you do with it?”
“Boxed it up and put it in the stockroom”
🙄👏🏼🙄👏🏼🙄👏🏼🙄

Was infuriating 🙈

I should go and get some. At normal times the mail to my family can get fucked. I I send them in August, maybe they come on time and not in Jan/feb😂

I noticed Xmas stuff is appearing on the Not on the High Street ad on Facebook 🎅🏽

Surely they don't sell more in total just because they sell earlier?
It must be the same overall sales spread over a larger period.
Nobody buys Christmas cards twice (unlike tins of Quality Street)

You can guarantee that they'll be people who buy now, forget they've bought and buy again or if they don't forget/ lost the cards, they'll decide they don't like what they've bought.

Shops are wary of another lockdown.

They probably have stock to get rid of, and also fearing a winter lockdown. Might be a good idea to do Christmas prep early this year!

I noticed yesterday that the Pret in Canterbury High St had a Christmas wreath with baubles around the door...madness!