Stupid Manufacturers

[annuin]

Yesterday I went to the grocery store. They had their Halloween candy out already.


IT'S EARLY AUGUST.


I really hate how manufacturers and stores here put out holiday stuff so far in advance nowadays. It completely ruins my enjoyment by sheer overkill, by the time the holiday rolls around, I'm completely sick of all the decorations and peripheral marketing crap.

I don't want to see Halloween stuff in early August when it's close to 100F. Nor do I want to see Christmas crap before Halloween has actually come and gone, which will inevitably happen.

Comments

[damesilibo.livejournal.com]

I hate that crap,too. I remember when I used to get indignant because the Christmas crap was out before Thanksgiving. Now I refuse to go anywhere near a mall or chain store for three months in advance.

[goawayplease.livejournal.com]

Same here, but I don't know that the stores notice... It just makes me so upset and annoyed to see Christmas things out three months early that I purposely avoid any store that I absolutely don't have to visit.

I took a picture in 2000 when I was in Tokyo before thanksgiving and they were putting up all of these dummy Santas on a building, and at the time it was funny because it was November and stuffed Santas and everyone I showed it to got a kick out of it. Now, that'd be late in the season...

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

A couple of years ago PreZ and I went to an Illuminations store in a local mall here (sadly it is no longer there). It was 2 or 3 weeks before Halloween, and they'd already ditched all their Halloween candles/decorations and had their late Autumn/Thanksgiving bordering on Christmas candles and decorations out.

The fact that I couldn't buy Halloween stuff in early-mid October really pissed me off enormously.

[valerian.livejournal.com]

I totally agree (with the exception of online stores which inevitably have to deal with lengthy shipping times, so I can accept that they have to get started early). But seriously, mall shops and department stores? Wait till Septmeber at least!!!

[abigailvr.livejournal.com]

The Michael's near me has had halloween stuff out for a while. I'd be okay with it, since presumably people are making things from the stuff they buy there except that Michael's had a lot of premade decorations on sale too. What's the point? It's maddening.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I noticed pre-fab Autumn/Halloween stuff there when I was shopping for cake supplies for Dashiell's birthday. Which was mid-July.

Like you I forgave them some of their transgressions because obviously crafting for the holidays takes time and you need supplies early. But a supermarket really doesn't have that excuse.

[ladyattercop.livejournal.com]

Amen! It's especially hard to stomach the Halloween and Christmas decor here in the sweltering south when we're still another 3 hellish months away from weather that could even begin to be described as human.

When you're pouring sweat in 95 degree heat with 100% humidity, the last thing you want to see is fucking penguins in scarves and ear muffs!

LOVE your user icon by the way. I was quoting Viv today at work, and everyone just kept staring at me like I was nuts.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

I found it in badtattoos_4 and had to steal it.

That community has huge entertainment potential with all the shitty tattoos people have tormented their skin with.

[ladyattercop.livejournal.com]

Dear god! Some of those were cringe-inducing. It's almost enough to make me never want to let a tattooist near me again.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

It definitely teaches you to do your homework before choosing an artist, that's for damn sure. Not that I needed that reinforced anyway, I've seen too many people with what I consider mediocre tattoos to just choose an artist lightly. But then the idea of a crappy tattoo on me forever is just horrifying to me, I don't understand that other people don't consider this when giving into the desire to get a tattoo.

That said, I've noticed that what some people find a good tattoo or piece of art doesn't necessarily coincide with what I find good. I just have exceptionally high standards in that regard I think.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Oh, and become a member of the community if you want to see many many more crappy tattoos.

A few pages back there's a really horrifying one that's based on The Crow. Ye gods, the horror I suffered looking at that thing. I'll see if I can give you the image links. It's on some trashy tramp who tattoos other people in her kitchen.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

And yes, with super hot weather, your mood really isn't into fall and winter holidays.

We had 94F the other day, with a heat index of 104F due to the humidity. Urgh. plz for 2 be fucking off with non-summer seasonal holidays kthxbye!

[ladyattercop.livejournal.com]

I don't even want to think about what the heat index was today. I can't wait until I have a car with a/c! Woo hoo!

[passercul.livejournal.com]

...okay, I have a question. Is Halloween a mega-duper holiday or something over there, like, say, I think the only one we can relate to closely is Christmas? Not that that's any excuse for marketing merchandise, what, over two and a half months in advance (I don't think that happens so much over here; usually for Christmas and the Chinese New Year we get decor and merchandise maybe six weeks? in advance), I can't understand how they might not have noticed that people would be inevitably sick of the holiday by the time it finally does come around.

I ask because while Halloween is gaining popularity here with the increasing European and American population, we don't yet have to deal with maybe more than a week's worth of merchandise and marketing for the occasion.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

In the US it's definitely one of the big holidays, but it's not as big as Christmas.

In Europe it's not, though apparently it is gaining some ground. It was more well known in the UK and Ireland, but not outside of there. It seems to mostly be a tradition that came over from (I believe) Ireland with the immigrants, and it expanded once over here.

Christmas is the biggest holiday here because it's the biggest commercial opportunity. The Christmas stuff will start hitting stores in September, mark my words. And the massive gift buying push will go crazy just after Thanksgiving (late November), with the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) usually being the biggest retail sales day of the year. The push to buy stuff for Christmas is completely perverse.

With Halloween candy is the biggest seller, and then you have costumes and decorations, but commercially you can't market it quite as much as Christmas. Halloween is often the favourite holiday amongst kids though, because it's a lot of fun... you get to dress up, the holiday is spooky, and you get candy. What's not to love.

Either way, the mass commercialisation of all the holidays is just nauseating. As soon as Christmas is over, you start seeing red and pink crap for Valentine's Day (along with ads on tv for guys to buy their women diamonds... most ads are geared at guys buying women stuff, never the other way around). Then after Valentine's day Easter is the big decoration/card holiday, unless St. Patrick's day falls earlier, but that's also not as widely marketable. Then it goes mostly quiet, but with some patriotic decorations for things like Memorial day (late May) and Independence Day early July is another one where fireworks etc. are sold.

The whole spirit of each holiday is raped by the money grubbing attitude of companies. And it's sad.

[passercul.livejournal.com]

Just a comment, one of the reasons V-day is probably more marketed as guys buying women stuff because diamonds are just way more expensive than... well, almost anything a woman would buy for a guy. It's interesting to note that the Japanese have the occasion marked by the ladies giving the guys chocolates, and the guys repaying the gesture a month later with gifts.

We don't have as much of a holiday craze locally, I think (well, it could be just me, since I'm detached from society on the whole, but I prefer not to think of it as such), I think there's only Christmas and the Lunar New Year as I said before, as the major ones, and maybe Valentine's will start being pushed 2-3 weeks in advance since that one is so profitable. We don't have anything sold for our National (independence) Day--which was just a couple days ago incidentally--unless you count national flags, but no one needs more than one of those, for those who can be bothered to hang one up. But we have lots of patriotic ads on TV and there'll be some banners lining the streets I suppose.

I think it might be better here because we're fairly multiracial and have two days a year for each major racial and religious group (Hari Raya for the muslims, Deepavali for the Indians, and so on), and people just might pay more attention to their traditional celebrations in their respective communities, and just make use of the marketed merchandise when necessary. Possibly it's a politic thing to not push any holiday overly hard either, since it might be construed by some as unfair (ignorantly) if their racial holiday isn't hawked as much. I think Christmas doesn't count because it's a big international holiday, and Chinese New Year gets some leeway as the majority population is Chinese.

Then again, it could be just me being unrealistically optimistic about the whole thing. :")