‘Christmas creep’ returns

PHILADELPHIA — It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — and it’s only October.

Santa isn’t here yet, but retailers already are stocking shelves with Christmas merchandise, in some cases setting up Christmas trees and holiday lighting way before Thanksgiving and even pre-empting Halloween.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and J.C. Penney Co. are some retailers hoping to get consumers into a Christmas shopping frame of mind two months early. Sears Holdings Corp.’s Sears and Kmart stores kick off the Yuletide mood in late October or early November. Costco Wholesale Corp. said it’s always put out Christmas ornaments, gift wrap, cards and artificial trees as early as September.

“Although our busiest Christmas sales weeks will occur in November and December, we have been placing a selective sampling of our Christmas items into stores early in the season for several years,” said Tara Raddohl, a spokeswoman for Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart.

The trend began about three years ago, but more retailers are joining in, said Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group, a consumer behavior marketing firm in Charleston, S.C.

It’s a phenomenon called “Christmas creep,” according to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Hoping to catch early shoppers, retailers are extending their all-important holiday shopping season, which accounts for 25 percent to 40 percent of the year’s sales.

“The creep has been going on,” said William Cody, managing director of the Baker Retailing Initiative at the Wharton School. “Every year, retailers hope that coming out early is going to reduce the amount of promotions. They’d rather people buy at full price.”

Shoppers who spot a Christmas item they fancy might not want to wait for the product to go on sale a month later for fear it would be sold out. So they’ll buy it at full price, Beemer said.

But it’s still not clear whether the strategy adds significantly to profits, Cody said. Retailers haven’t reported any big jumps in sales or profits pegged to an extended Christmas shopping season.

At The Parks at Arlington mall in Arlington, Tex., several shops already have Christmas trees in window displays, said Cindy Thompson, the shopping center’s marketing manager.

“It looks like Christmas is starting early,” she said.

Part of the stores’ strategy is to capture more sales by letting people shop early, she said. That’s why, for the first time this year, The Parks and five other malls owned by General Growth Properties in the area will be opening at 6 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving, the traditional kickoff of the holiday shopping season known as Black Friday. Other opening times will vary, but the half-dozen malls will close at 10 p.m. daily from Black Friday until Dec. 23.

Some retailers, such as Costco, have always set out their Christmas goods ahead of others.

“We put it out very early,” said Gary Ojendyk, Costco’s general merchandise manager. “There’s a lot of small business people that buy products from us and resell the products.”

But retailers have to be careful not to push Christmas in October too aggressively because they don’t want to risk alienating shoppers.

“It’s too early. I think they should start after Thanksgiving,” said Kim Nelson, a shopper at Macy’s in downtown Philadelphia. “They just want to rush everything.”

While the 37-year-old resident of Glen Mills, Pa. doesn’t want to see Christmas decor at malls before Thanksgiving, she admits that she does shop early for the holidays.

She’s not alone. The National Retail Federation, an industry trade group in Washington, D.C., said 40 percent of consumers plan to start their holiday shopping before Halloween this year.

“The demand for holiday merchandise is there,” said Kathy Grannis, the group’s spokeswoman.