Walking down the aisles of a superstore fragrances of cinnamon, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and gingerbread overwhelm the noses of consumers.
Artificial yellow yams, dried brown gourds, faux evergreen garland and shiny plastic pumpkins fill fields of vision.
Bright ornaments, multi-colored twinkle lights, nativity scenes and tiny turkeys dominate the shelves.
It all means one thing — the holiday season has arrived.
And it is still October.
Sangkil Moon, an assistant professor in marketing, commented on the early spotting of holiday products.
Moon said he sees two main components to this idea. “First, stores want to get ahead in the game by early promotions,” he said. “Customers may have their general holiday shopping plans but haven’t quite figured out where to shop this early. Early promotions can entice more customers. I see decorations as a way to promote.”
“Second, decorations can put customers in holiday spirits. It can make them more attuned to holiday shopping, which can lead to bigger sales,” said Moon.
Reina Diaz, a freshman in communication, cited the holiday mood as one impetus for stores to prematurely shelve holiday goods.
“If you look around, houses are set up like a month early for the holidays,” Diaz said. “I guess they just want to get in the spirit. And the stores know that people will come buy things for the holidays early.”
Despite this trend, Diaz said the early push of holiday merchandize does not persuade her.
“For Christmas gifts, I usually wait until December, or sometimes November, to start shopping,” Diaz said.
Trey Broome, a freshman in business, said the holiday shopping season should start in early November — not, as it happens in some cases, at or before the middle of October.
According to Broome, businesses bring out the holiday goods “to promote shopping for Christmas gifts and to put people in the Christmas mood.”
But shelving holiday gifts and decorations doesn’t just affect customers, he said. “It causes business to pick up, because customers may try and get stuff done early and beat the Christmas rush.”
However, like Diaz, Broome said he doesn’t buy into early holiday gifts — not because he isn’t tempted, but because it’s the only time frame in which he heads out with the sole purpose of purchasing gifts.
“I usually wait to purchase Christmas gifts,” he said. “I tend to procrastinate on things like that.”
Amanda Brogden, a freshman in public relations and Spanish, said she would prefer to start seeing holiday gifts and decorations in stores at least a month before the holiday season.
“Stores put holiday decorations out early so people can purchase items early and maybe even get things on sale,” Brogden said.
Brogden also discussed decorating at home and the appropriate time to do so.
“As long as you put up decorations during the month in which the holiday is, then it would be fine,” Brogden said.
And continuing the trend, Brogden admitted her holiday shopping habits.
“I wait until the last minute to shop, unfortunately,” said Brogden.