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It's Christmas Time in the Autumn
By JON CHAVEZ
BLADE BUSINESS WRITER
At T.J. Maxx stores, Santa, snowman, angel, and caroler figurines have filled shelves since mid-August.
At J.C. Penney, Christmas decor items will be on display by tomorrow morning, a store official said.
Sections of local Macy's, Elder-Beerman, Kohl's, and Wal-Mart stores have been filled with ornaments, nutcrackers, trimmings, decorated Christmas trees, and holiday cards since Labor Day.
Many retailers say that making Christmas merchandise available well before Halloween has become a normal practice and that a segment of consumers not only buy holiday items but expect to see them in stores four to five months before December.
"We wouldn't put this in the store if it didn't blow out," said Laura McDowell, a spokesman for TJ Maxx, of Framingham, Mass.
"Who buys it is usually the customer who likes to decorate the home for all the holidays. She collects figurines and she'll pick it up whenever she sees it and she doesn't care that it's August."
But several experts said projections for subdued Christmas holiday sales this season may be prompting some companies to jump in days or weeks earlier with their merchandise, figuring they have little to lose and the timing may prevent being stuck with inventory later.
"The thinking is: the sooner you can get people in the mood the sooner they will start to spend," said Richard Feinberg, director of the Purdue University Research Institute, which focuses on retailing trends and consumer spending habits.
"There's no risk of turning people off because people are going to spend for the holidays anyway."
Connie Moore, of Toledo, noticed Christmas merchandise two months ago at several area dollar stores. Other retailers jumping in with merchandise now bothers her, she said.
"I just don't like seeing it this early," she said.
But sheepishly, she admitted that, if it's available, she'll buy.
"I do quite a lot of my shopping early. I try to have it done by Nov. 1 and I like to get things now, when it's on sale," she said.
Lona Jacobson, of Temperance, is a traditionalist who draws her shopping line at Thanksgiving.
"I didn't see any [in the stores], but I don't like seeing it this early," she said. "I want to have Halloween first."
For Priscilla Sherrod, manager of the Penney store at Westfield Franklin Park, a lengthened holiday sales season is a good thing. Putting out Christmas merchandise in September "gives you a chance to go back in and replenish it if you need to," she said.
How much consumers will spend this year concerns retailers and has in part prompted getting merchandise out early, some experts said.
Retail Forward, a consulting firm in Columbus, projects shoppers will spend 5.5 percent more this year for the holidays than last year, or $481 billion.
The National Retail Federation predicts holiday retail sales will increase 5 percent to $458 billion. Both forecasters said the jump in spending last year compared to the year before was higher than is expected this year.
Putting out some Christmas merchandise now serves a segment of customers, said Macy's spokesman Jennifer McNamara.
"There are some that do shop in July," she said, "and we have china patterns and some other items available that early."
Macy's recently instituted a 180-day return policy that would allow someone getting a gift at Christmas to return it as late as May.
Retailers, said Mr. Feinberg of Purdue, have their backs against the wall on Christmas merchandising. Ideally, they'd like to wait until after Halloween, "but if they wait and someone else beats them to the retail punch, somebody's jobs are on the line."
Not all stores agree that earlier is better. Sears Holding Co., which operates Sears and Kmart stores, doesn't plan to put out holiday merchandise until near the end of October, said spokesman Kim Freely.
"That's what our marketing surveys have told us about when people want to start seeing merchandising," she said.
Patricia Pao, president of Pao Principle, a New York retail consulting firm, said she thinks displaying Christmas items in September isn't a good idea.
"It's not a good utilization of floor space. Everything nowadays is just-in-time buying," she said. "Right now, people want to see fall clothes and they're still in a back-to-school mindset with their kids, who want to see Halloween."
Stores have been told that Christmas inventory should be put out early to prevent being stuck with leftovers, she said, but they may have jumped the gun.
Retail consultant Fred Marx, of Marx Layne Co. in Detroit, said most Christmas items are appearing in "swing areas, or space devoted to seasonal selections.
"It's all very programmed. … It might be confusing in that you haven't put a jack o' lantern out yet and here come these reindeer," he said. Still, he said, there is no question that each year Christmas merchandise appears a little earlier and becomes a bit more pronounced.
"The key is: Christmas stuff sells. Everybody is attracted to it and when you go into a store you think … 'I'd better buy that or it's not going to be there later,'•" he said.
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