Christmas creep misguided in crisis

Mozart, Picasso, Wright, Shakespeare, Dylan, Dickens. Point out one who doesn’t belong. Dylan, right? Wrong. That’s Bob Dylan we’re talking about, and he completely belongs. So when I heard he was releasing an album this Tuesday, I looked up everything I could about it.

I was very disappointed when I found out it was a Christmas album, not necessarily because Dylan had written a Christmas album, but because it was being released on Oct. 13.

Brace yourself. The Christmas creep is upon us, and it doesn’t care how light your pocketbook has become. In an effort to gain more market share, companies are rolling out Christmas even earlier this year; but with limited customer budgets, it may not be in a company’s best interest to push Christmas out early.

Economics drive sales, not Christmas spirit. In a down year for the economy, it’s more likely that customers are just going to get irritated with the Christmas creep than engage in the impulse buying that retailers covet.

Prior to this year, the Christmas creep felt more to consumers — as Stephen Hoch of UPenn’s Wharton School of Business put it — like the trend you see when the NFL season extends into February or when the World Series moves its way into November. No one is going to revolt against it, but it was certainly irritating to see. There’s no doubt the creep has been successful in years past, but with the downturn in the economy, there could be some resistance to the typical Christmas push this year.

Herb Kleinberger, of IBM Business Consulting Services, agreed that while promoting early is an excellent way to rake in some early business, and reaffirmed that “jumping the gun too soon can create an emotional pushback.” Customers have to be in the mood to Christmas shop, something that’s difficult to stimulate in early October when the weather is still hitting the mid-80s.

Of course that hasn’t stopped retailers from trying to put customers in the mood.

Retailers will do anything to jump-start the season. Step into a department store and you’ll see it in the displays of happy families smiling as they receive warm sweaters as gifts. Check your mail and you’ll see the Christmas catalogs taking up your whole box.

Step into your car and you’ll see it, too. Residents of La Crescenta reported sights of a truck driving around advertising Christmas light installations. There’s no escaping it. It swamps customers and can only lead to pushback when advertisers remind them of how little cash they have for Christmas this year.

It’s difficult to blame retailers for their efforts considering they’re struggling just as much as consumers are. Holiday sales can represent as much as 20 to 30 percent of a retailer’s typical annual sales, so their belief that aggressive strategies are every bit necessary if they want to keep afloat makes sense business-wise. Retailers prize these sales and jump out of the gate earlier each year to get them. But Kleinberger remains speculative when it comes to this strategy.

“I don’t think retailers are really benefiting,” he said. “Dollars are limited. There are too many stores chasing too few customers. It’s a market-share game. The game may be won by starting early, but extending the season doesn’t create more business for everybody. It just allows some retailers to get a jump on getting their share of spend.”

At the end of the day, companies can force it down our throats all they want, but the calendar doesn’t lie. People aren’t going to be in the holiday spirit until the holidays actually come. In a down economy, sales are going to come from the discounts on products and less so from impulse buying.

Even once Christmas is reasonably close, once the early-bird sales are gone, so are the customers. They know they can wait until prices go down further. It’s the deal that brings them in, not the artificially synthesized Christmas spirit. Extending the season seems pointless when customers are willing to wait until they get the best deal.

But if there’s one bright spot outside of all the sales tactics that encompass the Christmas season, it’s the ridiculously early release of holiday movies. Jim Carrey is going to play Scrooge in (yet another) reimagining of A Christmas Carol. It’s coming out Nov. 6.

Robert Fragoza is a junior majoring in chemical engineering. His column, “Reality Check,” runs Fridays.