Consumerism makes the holidays more about getting than giving

Maria Ly
Staff Writer

You enter a store and hear the bright cheery spirit of Christmas music as you scour the isles looking at an assortment of holiday themed sweaters, socks and even pajama pants.

It’s October and your Halloween decorations are still out!

With the holidays approaching, and Black Friday in less than three weeks, companies are taking any opportunity to capitalize on the holiday of giving.

Once they can’t make any more money off of Halloween, out come the snowmen, Santa Claus, snowflakes, and candy canes.

The sleigh bells are ringing, but I haven’t even taken off my Halloween costume yet.

According to the National Retail Federation’s 2019 holiday forecast, roughly 40% of consumers begin their holiday shopping before Halloween. This has been the trend for the past 15 years. They estimate the total holiday retail sales will increase about 4% from last year and total to around $730 billion.

With Christmas fast approaching, there is a large emphasis on spending, as holiday and Black Friday deals are spewed out all across TV ads, online ads, in stores, through streaming services, etc.

This morning I opened up YouTube to pass the time, and saw numerous ads encouraging me to buy Sprite’s Winter Spiced Cranberry soda.

There are numerous reasons people shop early, some believe they’re going to get better deals or do so to avoid a cluster and frenzy of fellow shoppers.

What’s seen a major increase over the years is the amount of online shoppers during the holiday season. 56% of consumers claim they’ll be shopping online this holiday season.

Companies know this, and have capitalized as much as they can by releasing exclusive deals online and doing a various amount of promotions. For example, Amazon has already started holiday promotions with their new “Holideals” with ads promoting certain companies such as Duracell with their slogan “Make the season brighter”.

Food chains and restaurants are also beginning their holiday promotions. Starbucks is beginning this week, their holiday red cups and seasonal drinks menu. People love their peppermint mochas and pumpkin spice lattes, and companies know selling them the earlier the better.

Some of you may be a Grinch or a Scrooge, and hate this early promotion of the holidays like I sometimes do, but it’s just something we all have to deal with. All in all, it’s the consumers to blame as everyone likes a good deal.

However, when December rolls around, many of us start to give in as we sit back in our recliners with a cup of peppermint hot chocolate watching classic Christmas movies scouring the internet for our last minute holiday shopping.

Header photo courtesy of Flickr.