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 🤷

@Cantheowneroftheredcorsapleasemovetheircar shops don't want stock left over that has to be reduced after the event.
They want it sold and gone.

Autumn is such a lovely time of year. It really is a shame that it gets so overshadowed by Christmas, which is supposed to be midwinter.

Some people near us have some really horrible goulish decorations up outside their house. I wish they wouldn't do it. We're having to walk a different route to town because their decorations really are the stuff of nightmares (mutilated dolls and stuff)

Yuk

Glad to see the back of it.

Simple, after a certain date, the stores do not get any more deliveries of Halloween crap, so stock Xmas lines over Halloween lines that have sold out or condense the display. So if an item is displayed 4 wide, they can reduce the width to 2 if they have less than a certain number of stock.

Then a couple of days before Christmas, we condensed the Xmas stuff and start putting out seasonal stuff. Which was usually bedding and cookware.

Source - 17 years of working in retail.

So why are they shoving it in to inaccessible corners, piled up so you can barely see it, leaving irate customers rummaging through and getting in each others way?
Why's it not spread out nicely on the shelves like the rest of the stock? So people can actually buy it and enjoy buying it?
If I hadn't promised my daughter a bit of a fun shopping trip getting some new Halloween bits, I would have walked out without bothering.
If they hadn't done it ike that, I probably would have bought more. And I was expecting full price

I was in my local Range this morning, and noticed the same thing. I was just going in for a browse, as I haven't been there in ages. I've no interest whatsoever in Halloween, but like you, noticed it was pretty much all confined to one display near the entrance, mixed in with some Autumn/Thanksgiving stuff, and the rest higgledy-piggledy on some shelves near the back of the shop.
The rest of the shop was like Christmas had vomited all over it.

There's a Home Bargains on the same retail park, and they had a much more organised Halloween section still, with a lot of people looking. But that was a single aisle. Christmas had about 4-5 aisles.

I suspect half-term has played a role in Halloween feeling "done" already... People want to do parties and the like during the half term week, which for a lot of places was last week.

They will have received their full delivery of Halloween goods at least a week or two ago because they don’t want any left by Friday. Unlike Christmas, putting decorations up for Halloween is more niche and enthusiasts will have mostly already bought them. They don’t want to be left with excess stock

Some people just sling it and start again. Which shows that either are loaded or have poor money management.

Fact I have NOTHING of Halloween at home. Doorbell will be switched off on Friday as where I live, get the teens who don't make the effort to get dressed in Halloween costumes, come round people's houses wearing their black n grey tracksuits basically begging for money.

In our village, there will only be a knock on peoples doors if there is a lit-up pumpkin in the window (or on the doorstep.) No-one knocks on doors otherwise. Guess it depends where you live. We live in a quiet rural village, where the children are very well behaved.

I live in a large town and we have the same as you.
The general, well respected rule is that you only knock on the doors of houses who are clearly up for it. Pumpkins, or any sort of decorations.
People really go to a lot of effort round my area too, as there are a lot of families. They do things like jumping out of vans to scare people, or dressing up and doing comedy acts while handing out sweets. It's a really great night and I appreciate the effort so much, whilst also reciprocating by making an effort with my own house.
I love it and I really feel the community spirit on that night.

I love this (the tree the day before) ♥️

I am a strictly December only person.

I like to enjoy it for the full month of December and I get a real tree every year, so I'm not going to waste that on just one night, but anything outside on December just feels too much for me. It dilutes the specialness of it.

Lack of shelf and stockroom space for the Christmas stock that's already arrived in store - that needs to be out on the shelves because there's no where else for it to go.
Plus from a psychological point of view shelves with spread out "leftovers" looks bad to customers and puts them off.
Stock shoved together to look like there is more there than they're actually is makes customers think they are missing a bargain if they don't rummage.
It's just the way retail is.

Did you actually read the OP? People weren't interested in the Christmas stuff!

Only in the shop the OP was in it seems.
In other shops I have been in recently people appear to be buying lots of Christmas stuff already.
Some Christmas products in The Works have been and sold already. I went back to buy some last week and they had sold out already.

If I had my way, I would ban anything Christmas related until the last week of November. No decorations, food, etc. I would make an exception for birds and things being pre-ordered, but no Christmas stuff in the shops cluttering up the shelves, and no Christmas music, either.

Yes I did read the OP but, as I said in my later post, I don't think that one person presumably not in the shop and monitoring activity for the whole day, can reliably state that no one was interested in the Christmas stuff. They can't wait for all the Halloween stuff to be gone before putting out the Christmas stuff, Yesterday was the last Saturday before Halloween so they sold the remaining tatt off cheap while making way for the Christmas stuff (which probably creates up to 50% of their annual profits, making it a far bigger deal that Halloween). The fact that the OP didn't notice anyone buying any Christmas stuff in the 50 minutes she was in the store (!) means precisely nothing.

I don't mind stuff being sold
What I don't like is stuff being celebrated too early. WhenI tell people that I can't stand Christmas being dragged out, they often confuse the two.

One year, I had my children's nativity, my work do, and the school Christmas fair that I help out in with a Santa and everything, all before 25th November.

That's three if my major Christmas events done and over with before December, before even put my tree up. It felt so wrong.

November is still autumn. I want to enjoy Autumn before I enjoy midwinter celebrations.

Also bare shelves increases customers who dump stuff. Look when a shop closes down.

@AliceMaforethought The psychology behind shops playing Xmas music has gone. It used to increase sales, make customers happy. No, it makes customers want to leave the store and they are sympathising with staff. When I worked for a supermarket, I had to switch the Christmas music off in my head. When customers said "does this music drive you mad?" I bloody heard it then!

I started before the store opened or worked later after the store closed for a week before Christmas. The music was still playing on the tannoy. Manager taped down the button on the kiosk mic, (as music stopped when the mic was in use) and it was lovely. Asked one manager could we do this all the time. No he said as if someone from HQ visited, which was quite often in Dec, we would got told off.

Not being able to buy stuff doesn't stop you from celebrating an event! Nobody needs fake cobwebs, witches hats and plastic bats in order to 'celebrate' Halloween. And the dates that you like to stick to are as arbitrary as anyone else's.

My thoughts exactly @Cantheowneroftheredcorsapleasemovetheircar .
We were in the Range on Friday and couldn't believe that 75% of the store was stocked with Christmas stuff: no chance of buying anything "non date specific" as they have replaced it all with baubles and lights. And yes, we saw a tiny selection of "reduced to clear" Hallowe'en decorations. Once upon a time the Hallowe'en stuff at least meant that Christmas didn't appear until November, but regrettably that is no longer the case.

doesn't buy Easter Eggs until the day before Good Friday and then complains that they can't get any
Too bloody right. The day before Good Friday is still 3 days till Easter eggs are due. Why shouldn't I be able to buy from a full range of stuff 3 days before the event? That's still ages.

I do agree. Horror style Halloween decorations are really not my thing. It was never like that when I was a kid.
Pumpkins, autumnal scenes, witches, and cartoony ghosts here. I can't stand all the mutilation stuff.

I don't buy them this late myself, but I absolutely believe you should be able to

I hate it so much!
Pumpkins in shops 1st October going mouldy before Halloween.
I had to buy new Christmas lights last year around 15th Dec when we were decorating- there were only a couple of boxes left in the Range and the store assistant looked at me like I had two heads when I asked if they had any more anywhere!