Retailers Rush To Get Shoppers In Holiday Mood
BOSTON (CBS) - No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you.
It's easier than ever this year to see the Christmas decorations and the Halloween goodies side by side in your favorite store.
It would appear that once again, retailers are in a rush to get us in the shopping mood.
Lisa van der Pool with the Boston Business Journal says that is exactly what's happening.
WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong reports
"Retailers are putting holiday displays out even earlier this year," she explains "Everybody always talks about how you see Christmas decorations before Halloween; that's definitely happening this year."
A lot of the early decking-of-the-halls has to do with shoppers themselves. A lot of what we buy depends on how we feel. And with consumer confidence is at a two and a half year low, retailers are worried. Boston is a special case.
"Boston consumers are a bit gloomier than national consumers," says van der Pool. She sites a recently released report by Deloitte, LLP that shows only 14% of Bostonians feel more financially stable this year than they did last year (that compares to 21% nationally).
That Deloitte survey also says people here will be heading to the web in search of bargains more than ever before. Sixty-eight percent of Bostonians say they will use social media to hunt for holiday bargains -- compared to 57% nationally.
Stores know well that they can find us online, so they're tipping their hands way early.
Their print ad campaigns for sales that start the day after Thanksgiving, or Black Friday, are always prepared well in advance. But this year, many of those holiday deals were strategically leaked to web sites like www.cheapcheapcheap.com.
That's something industry experts have never seen happen in October. Major retailers like Toys R Us, Best Buy, and even Ace Hardware want to make sure consumers' eyes land on their products first, in the hopes that that will turn into increased sales.
