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We’re a nation divided. Each side judging the other side harshly, unable to empathize with their point of view. Each sure that their own values, methods and motives are more just, more reasonable and just plain better. Sound familiar?
I’m not talking about politics in America, I’m talking about the start of holiday shopping. And the season has begun even earlier this year, well before Halloween. There isn’t much in my field of consumer psychology that seems to stir up more angst than a conversation over when and how people should shop for the holidays.
As part of a recent research project I followed Joanne, an affluent 50-something empty-nester on a shopping trip to Costco in early October. She looked over at a fellow shopper examining a display of artificial Christmas trees and sighed. “Really? Why would she need a tree in October? Some people are just insane when it comes to Christmas. This is just too early. It’s crazy.”
Live and let live is lost when it comes to holiday shopping. Why? Like many, under Joanne’s contempt of October holiday shoppers is a fear that something she holds dear is being disrespected. For Joanne, that’s the coming together of family, the traditions of Christmas and the religious significance of the holiday. For others I’ve interviewed, angst springs from a fear that American life is over-commercialized and that consumers are pawns at the mercy of greedy retailers. Still others worry that two months of exposure to holiday merchandise in stores diminishes the impact of the season and the holidays will be rendered meaningless by mid-December.
Consumers like Joanne often think that early shoppers are neurotic or materialistic. And they also frequently judge stores that stock holiday merchandise early as hollow, sacrilegious or opportunistic product pushers.
And yet, according to the National Retail Federation 40% of Americans begin their holiday shopping before Halloween. Could such a giant percentage of our population be, as Joanne suggests, neurotic?
As part of this project I also interviewed Kerri, a working mother of two who travels frequently for her job. When I asked her about holiday shopping she said that shopping early is the only way to get it all done. “I’ve always shopped for Christmas all year ‘round. Once it was because I could pick up special things when I traveled. Now that I have kids it’s just a necessity and I’m glad I’m a good planner. I know people feel like the stores are pushing them but I actually appreciate being able to pick up things for the holidays early so that I don’t have to make special trips later. I hate crowds!”
Kerri, like most early shoppers, is the opposite of what Joanne thinks of people who shop early. Kerri says that she loves Christmas and shops early because she guards her budget carefully and is afraid that if she procrastinates she’ll overspend out of panic. She also hates crowds and feels pressured shopping during the holiday season. Contrary to what Joanne thinks, it’s Kerri’s respect for the holiday that propels her to shop early. “I don’t want to be one of those forlorn procrastinators that stops into a 24-hour drugstore on their way to a party hoping that a jug of bubble bath isn’t an inappropriate hostess gift.”
Kerri, like Joanne, assigns unhealthy motives to shoppers that don’t do it her way. She, like many others that like to shop early, think that people who wait until December to plan meals and purchase decorations and gifts are procrastinators and poor planners that miss out on the holidays because they’re “battling crowds.” Others have a sense that those who feel disgusted by early shoppers are secretly jealous. “I’ll never be the one rushing to the post office, forced to pay higher prices for shipping because I didn’t plan ahead. I can understand why people feel jealous,” Kerri says.
And then there are those that simply blame retailers. They bristle that promotions for every national holiday seem to start earlier every year. It’s not just Christmas Creep but now also Mother’s Day Creep and 4th of July Creep too. In fact, retailers are responding to the different way that consumers shop today: anytime and anywhere and on every device. (I want what I want when I want it) is the rule.
So, when should you start your holiday shopping? When it feels right for you. But no matter how or when you shop remember that goodwill toward others is the theme of the season.
