Merry Christmas everybody!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Ho Ho Ho, Irving Claus is coming to wish you a Merry Christmas--at least according to the retail calendar!

Got our first delivery of Christmas chotchkies last night--about one pallet full.

I swear they send this stuff to us earlier and earlier. Pretty soon we'll have Christmas and Back to School running at the same time.

[Becks]

I need to be held.

[Aldous]

Crap it's christmas already? WHERE ARE MY ANTI-REINDEER MISSILES!?!?! I'm not ready!! Santa's gonna get me this year. I WILL NOT BE YOUR SLAVE OLD MAN!!!!!! Oh crap he's here!!! No, wait that's my neighbor that looks like Santa Claus.. Waitaminit, maybe he is... Noooo.. I'm not taking chances *Gets anti-santa gear* BRING IT ON OLD MAN!!!!!!! (Santa ripped me off one too many years, it's war now )

[MMATM]

Don't worry Aldous, I've got the new long range ARM's installed on my roof. Actually, I never take them down. I just disguise them as Christmas lights and pretend I'm one of those people who thinks that the spirit of Christmas should last throughout the year and/or I'm too lazy to take down the damn lights and that's just my excuse. They've got some pretty decent range, and I think they'll even reach Queen songs from 1975. I've got you covered until you get your own anti-reindeer equipment up and running.

Also, IPF: Commendable use of the word chotchkie. Now the eternal question: Medal, or cookie?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I'll take the cookie. I'm hungry.

Mmm, coooookie!

[Ree]

Actually, just getting the Christmas stuff in now is late for our store! We usually get all our Christmas stuff in mid-July.

The managers and I were just talking about that yesterday. Our HO is behind on getting the stuff out to us.
We did get a little bit of stuff in July, and last week, the first of our Christmas toys started trickling in, but none of the Christmas bulk, relay, or market orders have started to ship yet, and that's really unusual. I'm not complaining, though, because that means I don't have to worry about finding a storage spot for it yet, when the warehouse still has a crapload of summer merchandise sitting around.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

We were just talking about this idiocy a couple hours ago over at a friend's house.

This is one reason I bypass retail stores altogether during Christmas and buy just about everything from Amazon. It's a huge turnoff to go into a store, it's not even freaking OCTOBER yet, and have tChristmas stuff rammed down my throat.

It's a hundred degrees down here, and yet I have to go to four stores to find my kid a blow up swimming pool. However, while I have that uncomfortable stream of boiling sweat rolling down my spine and I can feel the sun blasting my skin off, I can buy the hell out of some tinsel or a set of thermal underwear.

[draftermatt]

I know what you mean. My wife needed shorts before we went on vacation. She went to every store (On July 27) and could only find shorts on the clearance rack. When we went shopping on vacation (Outlet stores) it was all fall stuff.

[Neo_Classic]

That use to piss me off. When I worked at Sears we had a second floor stockroom which was used by Children's clothing, the mattress department, home appliances and bedding. We would always get Christmas themed crap and clothing in friggin' August and sometimes July! The stockroom was packed as it was. We literally had to walk over shit to get what we wanted.

The thing that use to scare me was that we sold gingerbread houses. Urgh...I use to wonder how those would taste after being in a stockroom for so long.

ETA: Does anyone wonder why in the world do people take so long to buy Christmas presents if the stuff is already selling in stores since September? Where have they been? Under a rock? "I need to do some last minute Christmas shopping."

You had like 3 months!

[Misanthropical]

ETA: Does anyone wonder why in the world do people take so long to buy Christmas presents if the stuff is already selling in stores since September? Where have they been? Under a rock? "I need to do some last minute Christmas shopping."

You had like 3 months!

We are usually saving up for Christmas, so most of our shopping is done last minute.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

ETA: Does anyone wonder why in the world do people take so long to buy Christmas presents if the stuff is already selling in stores since September? Where have they been? Under a rock? "I need to do some last minute Christmas shopping."

You had like 3 months!

Either:

A. they are saving up money and waiting for the Christmas Club check to come in. Many stores are doing away with layaway, or already have

or

B. they're inconsiderate tools (Especially true if you're trying to cram all your shopping into the 15 minutes or so before the store closes on Christmas Eve)

[Neo_Classic]

Really? You'd think most people would want to do it as soon as possible. That's what I do. I just can't stand the constant SC's that the holidays bring out. Also, I'm Jewish so I have to plan ahead for all eight days.

[Rine]

We already have our planners for Christmas that tell us how they want the store decorated. We usually have to hang these stupid giant ball swags but we don't this year, YAY! Those are such a pain in the ass to hang.

But we already have Christmas blankies, decor, and a tree or two in the stock room. Makes me want to cry.

[GoldFinch]

So...I guess Halloween just magically doesn't exist now? I've seen Christmas crap out already too. I was in Michael's today just kind of browsing through the Halloween stuff they had when I turned down the next aisle and was smacked in the face with wreaths and garland...wtf? Seriously, it's still summer and all I can find in clothing stores are thick sweaters and pea coats. It's Florida...the cold weather doesn't hit us until MID DECEMBER.

I don't remember places getting ready for Christmas/Winter this early last year.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

No, halloween does exist. On last night's truck we also got in a ton of Halloween/autumn decorations and other assorted chotchkies.

We've also been getting in Halloween candy and Christmas toys.

This is about the suckiest time of the year to work receiving in a discount store. We've got stuff for two different holidays coming in that we can't put out and have to find room for somehow, plus we've still got a lot of school supplies and patio furniture (!) that we've got to get rid of. I swear we have about 20 cushioned patio dining chairs that had originally been $81, marked down to about $25 and we still can't sell them.