Desperation in High Places

[forsyth]

Last month at work, we started putting up a display of Christmas bargain books. In September. SEPTEMBER. Now there's not only that, but also a table of Christmas cards, and a table of random holiday books. In the first week of October.

I detect the not-so-faint wiff of desperation animating it all. "Consumer spending" has been soft this year, for a simple reason. People don't have money. All the rest of the money people have been spending was coming from their savings, and the mortgages on their houses. And now suddenly the whole pyramid scheme animating the mortgage market has fallen apart, and people don't have thousands of dollars to spare. So people haven't been spending, and the corporate retailers are panicking, because they don't know what to do, how are they going to squeeze out their next quarter of record profits?

So they've played their ace card. Christmas cheer and spending! Now now now! Come and spend! You have to! Otherwise, you're failing your family and kids and everyone you know! It's that time of year, even though it's October!

And then I saw a report on the local news yesterday, about how Wal-Mart had dropped prices on lots of toys to try and kick into holiday mode. And other stores have been following suit. The customers they interviewed didn't care, because it was 90 frickin degrees out yesterday, who wants to go Christmas shopping in the heat? Also, it's the beginning of October.

And they had a professor from one of the colleges around here, I missed his name or expertise, but he was crediting it to desperation too. Obviously I agree with him.

But I probably disagree with him in the fact I hope it fails. I hope it fails because then maybe they'll stop shoving Christmas forward until the "Holiday Season" literally begins in July. And I don't think it'd be bad for the whole edifice of corporate consumer retail bullshit to be shaken up. It's a fragile construct, based on marketing and advertising and other lies, which results in people working jobs selling plastic shit to each other so we can afford to go buy plastic shit from other stores. It's completely fucked up our culture, and it can't last. I hope it doesn't, but I hope it doesn't bring us all crashing down with it.

Comments

[megpie71.livejournal.com]

Too late.

Here in Australia, we have the Christmas season starting in about late August - early September (or at least, that's when the stores start producing their "layby early for Christmas" toy sale catalogues). The decorations are already on sale, and they start putting up the Christmas decorations in the shops themselves in about mid-November (we don't celebrate Halloween - wrong season - and we don't have any major holiday of any note from about the beginning of October right the way through until Chrimble). About the only thing that stops them from putting up the decorations in August as well is that at that time of the year it's winter down here, and Christmas for us is a *summer* festivity.

[Context: 10 years working in the Australian retail industry; 10 Christmasses of listening to "Winter Wonderland" on the store PA, and then walking outside into a carpark which was about 40C in the shade. I have a rather predictable set of issues as a result.]

[forsythferret.livejournal.com]

I imagine a lot of Australians have the same sorts of issues.

But no Halloween? That's horrible!