Early

I was at Costco this weekend, and noticed that a giant skeleton decoration was already up and on sale. While June seems pretty early for Halloween decorations to be on store shelves, it's something of a necessity if things are both going to be sold, but not in the way of the earlier and earlier start to the Christmas shopping season.

Personally, not being a big Christmas person, I'm not a fan of the longer and longer time that's being devoted to it. But I get it from the point of view of retailers. To the degree that Christmas shopping can be chalked up to impulse buys, it makes sense that stores that have items out first are going to capture sales. And this sets up something of a race to have things out early. And that pushes other seasonal items, like Halloween, earlier in the year.

We'll see if Halloween decorations are on the shelves in May next year, or if the march of the start of the Christmas season takes a year or two to catch its breath.