To think it's silly that shops are already replacing Halloween stock with Christmas stock?

[Cantheowneroftheredcorsapleasemovetheircar]

Yesterday, so 25th October, I took my daughter to The Range so we could choose some new Halloween decorations for Friday night.

Walked in and it was like Christmas exploded in there. Christmas lights, trees and decorations everywhere, Christmas music playing. Halloween decorations shoved into a corner with reduced stickers on.

Now I don't mind Christmas decs being out, I see why they do it. Trouble is, the Halloween decorations were by no means sold out yet or even depleted, people very much still wanted them. There were massive piles of them shoved into the corner, it was a busy Saturday there were loads of people crowded round the Halloween decorations, trying to buy them, but unable to properly look at them because they were all piled onto one tiny section with everyone crowded round it.

Hardly anyone paying any attention to the Christmas stuff, which filled the entire shop.

Picked some Halloween stuff, took it to the counter, and the lady said "it's good to buy it now, when it's all reduced, isn't it? It means you can put it away for next year!"
I'm like.... Halloween isn't for a week??!! They're for this year??!!

WTF? Makes zero sense.

At least a got a discount I guess 🤷

Why does everyone need so much crap every year. Surely Halloween stuff can be reused?

Love Summer in the shops and Spring.
Gardening stuff,Camping Stuff, Plantar garden chairs, Paddling Pools and Picnic items.
All this winter Crud can get in the bin.

I think the general idea is that you buy a few bits every year and build up a collection. So when your kids are small, you have a few bits for them to enjoy, and by the time they're adults, you have everything and they no longer care 😅

A bit like how by the time you're in a position to buy a big house, you no longer need one 😂

Maybe not where you live but there have been decorated houses round me for days already

People definitely make a week's long event nowadays

But OP you were in their 10 minutes or so surely? As someone said upthread, they will be basing their strategy on data, not a feeling they get from wandering around one of their stores for a short period of time on one day. Maybe you are right and it hasn't worked this year and will be different next year, but the trend has long been to put stuff out well ahead of events so I doubt it.

I’m not sure you can confidently say that really, it’s just as possible that all those people wanted the REDUCED items, which just happened to be halloween items. As the store assistant said lots of people could have been getting a bargain for next year.

I’d be surprised if many people who were actually bothered about having halloween decs up would have waited until this weekend to go buy some.

The Range starts its Christmas section in September when it reduces its summer stock.

The shops stock what customers will buy. If we all ignored the pressure to endlessly spend on pointless tat, we'd all be better off and the planet would thank us for it.

YABU @Cantheowneroftheredcorsapleasemovetheircar .

The Halloween stuff has been around since early September, and people have had plenty of time to get it. It's 26th October, only 4-5 days to Halloween, and you're acting like it's still September. I don't think it's that odd for the Christmas stuff to be shoved to the front now. It's only 8 weeks, and some people have a lot to get, and may want to spread it over the next 8 weeks. It would be no good for some if they didn't start selling it til 1st December.

I don't know where you live, but where I live - the market town 3-4 miles from me, and my village - people put Halloween decorations up from around 10th-12th October. (A few do it even earlier, like the first week of October.) It's spooky season for most from 1st October to 31st October.

My Halloween decorations went up on 17th October. It's highly unusual for people to put Halloween decorations up on 31st October and only keep them up for that one day, and night. I don't know anyone in real life who does that.

Are you one of these people who puts the Christmas decorations (and tree) up on Christmas Eve, then takes it all down on Boxing Day, because you 'don't like the clutter?' And doesn't buy Easter Eggs until the day before Good Friday and then complains that they can't get any, or there are only the £25 ones left? (Even though they've been on sale since late January/early February?!)

There are some people like that on Mumsnet. I never meet any in real life though.

There are two unreasonable things here- the Halloween tat and the start of Christmas shopping in October.

I'd have double VAT on early sales of Christmas stuff, and Easter eggs before Shrove Tuesday.

Completely agree
Don't mind about Christmas stuff being out now cos that's been the case for years.
But I'm sure it's only been in the last few years that they've started getting rid of Halloween (or other seasonal stuff) before Halloween happens
It annoys me

@Cantheowneroftheredcorsapleasemovetheircar I went in Home Bargains the other day.
Customers definitely weren't ignoring the Christmas stock there. They were buying loads.

I'm absolutely not that person, no.
And I did say in my OP that I understand why they are out I just don't understand why they dominate.
I start thinking about/preparing for Christmas myself around the time the kids go back to school in September. I aim to have my Christmas shopping done by the end of November (don't always achieve it!) and my decs go up 1st weekend in December, never before December. I love Christmas and make it last the entire month, I can't believe people take stuff down on boxing day, that's very much still Christmas to me and I find it sad but ETTO.
Easter stuff I buy around 2 weeks to a month before but I only buy egg hunt stuff as they are lucky and get shit loads of eggs brought the the grandparents.

All I am saying is I want all events to actually be over before I am being stopped from celebrating them. It used to be, not that long ago at all, that you would be buying all the reduced stock after the event. The Christmas chocolate would still be on the reduced counters in January. The valentine's chocolates still being reduced on February 15th.
Now it's all gone before it's even happened.

Exactly. I have seen this too. Indeed , we have bought about a third of our Christmas (food) stuff already. We like to be well prepared and get what we need before it sells out. We left it late a few years ago (early December) and 3 or 4 things we usually have had sold out, and they didn't come back in. Once bitten and all that........

Why is Halloween stuff tat but not Christmas stuff?

Both can be kept for the next year.

I get you @Cantheowneroftheredcorsapleasemovetheircar and fairplay, I see you're not one of those people. However, some people (including me) do disagree with you with what you're saying (and what your thread is about.)

Exactly.
I'm sure it's only been the last few years too. Uve always bought Halloween stuff around my October payday.

But some people choose to buy it earlier, and put it up around their house and garden earlier. There's no right or wrong. You seem to be giving the impression that your opinions and the way YOU do it, are gospel, and that only your way is correct.

Hmmm

No...I'm really not.

I've no problem with people buying things whenever they want. I haven't complained about anything being out too early, I've complained about things being put away too early.

You could argue that making shoppers finish all their buying before an event has even begun is saying there's a right and wrong. People are giving the impression that they think I should be buying earlier and that I've left it too late. So if anything, I am the one being told when I should and shouldn't buy things.

As you say, there's no right or wrong.

At M&S they started putting Christmas stuff out whilst their ‘Summer Edit’ food was still on the shelves… 🙄

It was quite a bit longer than 10 minutes. It took a while to get the Halloween stuff as so many people were squashed into the small section full of stuff.
I then had other stuff to buy in the shop. That was how I was able to see the rest of the store and how full of Christmas stuff it was, top and bottom, that noone was interested in.
I probably spent 40-45 minutes in there.
Yes, a snapshot but it still painted a picture. I think it makes sense too. A Saturday before Halloween, on a weekend that a lot of people have probably just been paid, is going to be a busy time to sell Halloween stuff, I would have thought. People are probably getting their decorations out and seeing what they do and don't have.

OK, but people will have been drawn to the bargains. It's because it is cheap. From a personal perspective my dc are late teens and I'm pretty sure Halloween decs weren't the massive deal they are now when they were small. We bought normal sweets for trick or treating, costumes and a pumpkin. That was it. I find it a bit excessive now and feel I wouldn't buy it even if my kids were small. BUT, if they were small and I saw stuff being sold off for a couple of quid, I probably would get sucked in - 'Oh, only £1.99 for a cute little ceramic ghost/pumpkin...' Then I'd be grumpy because annoyed at myself and crowded shops don't bring out the best in anyone do they?

The reason that there are seldom cheap eggs being sold off after Easter anymore etc is because the shops have got a lot better at predicting how much they will sell and have better stock control software and suchlike (I don't work in retail so no idea of the details), but it is because they have got better at maximising their profits, not because the sillies have forgotten that we all love a bargain after the event and they are now foolishly missing out on those sales. They put the stuff out early because they know it will result in many people buying twice as they eat stuff early and have to rebuy.

YANBU to be disappointed that it doesn't work the way you preferred it anymore, but YABU to think it's because the shops are missing a trick.

I disagree. Most people I know buy things in advance. Usually at the beginning of October is when I start to see houses being decorated. And when I was in The Range the other day, (buying a Christmas tree 😬) there was one small table of Halloween stuff there, with not much left. Maybe the store you were in wasn’t representative of all of their stores.

My kids are older now so I don’t have Halloween decorations anymore - I just have a few autumnal things that get used year after year and a light up plastic pumpkin from when they were little that I put outside the door for the trick or treaters to know to knock.

Retailers got wise. So many people used to wait until the last minute to get decorations for Christmas or some other event assuming prices would be lowered, they used to be but are not now. You have to buy in advance.

They absolutely don't. I had this exact same scenario on Friday only in a different shop. I was looking to buy some Halloween stuff that was blocked off by a huge metal case full of Christmas stock. I couldn't get near the Halloween stuff so I left without buying anything. How on earth does that make sense? They lost out on sales, I doubt I was the only one who left without buying.

I think Halloween is a massive pain for retailers. When I worked in retail in the early 90s as a student, the local chamber of commerce set the date for the Christmas decorations to go up and it was always the second weekend in October. I’ve spent my whole life listening to people insist that Christmas gets earlier every year but it genuinely doesn’t. In fact, if anything it is a bit later as shops try to square the circle of moving from Halloween to Christmas.