Christmas onrush

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

The Chipmunks' "Christmas Song" is emanating from a display at Target. Tiny white lights flash from a tree set up at the Archer Road Walgreens. Hundreds of ornaments are hung at Wal-Mart. Lit igloos and penguins with stocking caps greet customers at Kmart.

Starting three weeks ago, before most of the Halloween candy was even on display, area department and variety stores began hauling out the artificial Christmas trees and wreaths and stocking shelves with holiday gift wrap and cards.

The National Retail Federation, an industry trade group in Washington, D.C., said 40 percent of consumers had planned to start their holiday shopping before Halloween this year. And retailers, which earn 25 percent to 40 percent of their annual revenue during this season, want to encourage that early start.

Christmas shopping "really starts early to mid-November in a pretty serious way," said consumer researcher Britt Beemer, founder of America's Research Group of Charleston, S.C. He said the trend to start earlier began about three years ago, but more retailers are joining in. He calls it "Christmas creep."

But a smattering of shoppers contacted by The Sun responded with something akin to "bah, humbug."

"I do not buy any Christmas stuff this early," said Roberta Peacock.

"By the time it's Christmas, or even two weeks before Christmas, I am so tired of seeing and hearing it in the stores. Even my children, 10 and 12, said, 'Mom, I can't believe they have Christmas stuff out way before Halloween. What happened to Thanksgiving?' "

Lia Watkins shared her dismay. As she was browsing novelty ornaments at Wal-Mart for bingo prizes, she said the early display "is terrible. I don't like to think about Christmas until Dec. 1. Where is Thanksgiving? This is obnoxious."

Lynn Rousseau was taken aback.
"Several weeks ago, I went into Kmart and had to maneuver through the changing of the shelves and decor, thinking they must be putting out Halloween decorations. Then I saw the huge inflated Santa ball with snow - on a very hot, humid day in Florida - and was shocked. It was not even Halloween yet, much less Thanksgiving."

Later she added, "The whole wonderment of the different seasons is lost."

But this doesn't mean Christmas is far from shoppers' minds throughout the year, particularly if they are bent on getting one of the must-have gifts that are rare on the shelves, such as the new PlayStation 3 or T.M.X. Elmo.

Barzella Papa said, "Personally, I like to shop the clearance aisles after the holiday for the following year and I stock up on gifts and toys throughout the year."

Papa said, "For the hard-to-find items, I usually go online and I will do that throughout the year. My best friend is www.froogle.com, where I can run a search for a particular item at the best price."

According to a new survey conducted for the National Retail Federation by BIGresearch, shoppers - who are expected to spend $791.10 each this year on holiday merchandise - will use the Internet for an average of 28.9 percent of their shopping.

A recent Consumer Reports poll found 39 percent of Americans plan to buy gifts online this year. Half of 18- to 34-year-olds said they will do their shopping online.

"While many shoppers plan to purchase holiday gifts online this year, others are using the Internet - Google, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay - to look for gift ideas, research products and compare prices before heading to the store," said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org, the online retail division of the National Retail Federation.

Terry Van Nortwick does her holiday shopping while traveling throughout the year, "so it's mostly finished by summertime. It's just too crazy to try to shop during the holidays."

Bart Weitz, director of the David F. Miller Center for Retailing Education and Research at University of Florida's College of Business Administration, said, "This notion of bringing out Christmas earlier and earlier is somewhat of an urban legend. If you ask retailers who are honest with you, they will say they do it around the same time every year. It's sort of a bit blown out of proportion."

That's true for The Oaks Mall. Becky Bumgarner, marketing director, said the Christmas decorations will be installed there Tuesday and Wednesday after the mall stores close.

"We hear from people that it's earlier and earlier each year, but we stick to the same time frame every year."

However, Weitz said setting up Christmas early is practical from the retailers' point of view.

"It might look like crass commercialism, but there are other factors in play. It's not necessarily out there to motivate shoppers. Sometimes the stuff gets shipped early and stores need to get it out of their storage space for other things. And store personnel have a lot of other things to do later in the season.

"This is a very busy time of year, with some retailers making 40 percent of their profits. So they need to get 40 percent of their merchandise out in a short period of time," Weitz said.

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