Why is Valentine's Day merchandise popping up in stores so soon?

[fla4fun]

I just figure after Easter, Fourth of July and Back to School will be in full swing in the seasonal aisle.

They will somehow manage to squeeze big Mother’s Day sales between Easter and the 4th. The poor fathers will barely get a commercial or two on tv.

 

[DodgerGirl]

I have figured out why the stores are putting out Easter and Valentine's Day merchandise early. It turns out that Easter is March 31st this year and beginning with Valentine's Day I think we will start seeing a double whammy of holidays ike the day before Valentine's Day is Mardi Gras and once Valentine's Day is over they'll bring out the merchandise for St. Patrick's Day and grocery stores will begin having sales on corned beef and hams for Easter dinners. Back in the days you would even see commercials for Dairy Queen advertising Valentine's Day ice cream cakes and now it seems that the number one top selling merchandise of Valentine's Day is now chocolates and plushies rather than flowers and jewelry

 

[PollyannaMom]

Despite my crafting hobby, we don't put up anything for Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving--my kids are adamant that Thanksgiving have its rightful place

My DS feels the same way! One year I gave him these:

so if Christmas was intruding on Thanksgiving, at least Thanksgiving could intrude on Christmas a little.

I @DodgerGirl I too noticed the valentines stuff out at CVS the day after Christmas. I think they just always have those center aisles dedicated to the seasonal merchandise and that’s the next big one coming up and empty shelves is not a good thing in a store.

I agree that this is the answer to the original question.

 

[mom2rtk]

I ran out on December 23rd to grab some last minute stocking stuffers and Christmas candy. It was all gone and replaced with Valentine’s Day and EASTER candy! I WAS tempted to just buy Cadbury eggs for the stockings, but I was so annoyed with Walmart for getting rid of the Christmas stuff before Christmas, I walked out and went to CVS. Ended up spending a pretty penny there. Sorry Walmart, your loss. I guess I’ll be going to CVS for Easter stuff too since I refuse to buy Easter candy in January.

Do you think Walmart took Christmas stuff off the shelves before Christmas? Don't you think they just ran out?

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I ran out on December 23rd to grab some last minute stocking stuffers and Christmas candy. It was all gone and replaced with Valentine’s Day and EASTER candy! I WAS tempted to just buy Cadbury eggs for the stockings, but I was so annoyed with Walmart for getting rid of the Christmas stuff before Christmas, I walked out and went to CVS. Ended up spending a pretty penny there. Sorry Walmart, your loss. I guess I’ll be going to CVS for Easter stuff too since I refuse to buy Easter candy in January.

More likely, they sold out. Gone are the days where stores had essentially all but the most popular of popular items after Christmas. They don't carry nearly so much. It's not good to essentially be sold out before Christmas, Optimally, you'd just sell out December 24th. But it beats having gobs of inventory left that you have to throw on 70% off sales. Walmart wasn't the only one. Lowes, the depot, and target were thrashed about a week prior. The Supers were out of their specialty candy about a week prior also. Not much left at any of those places. And yeah, Walgreens was fully stocked. Because they're mega expensive on that stuff.

 

[WorldWacky]

Do you think Walmart took Christmas stuff off the shelves before Christmas? Don't you think they just ran out?

I really don’t. When I say every aspect of Christmas was gone, I mean EVERYTHING. It was as of the Grinch himself swooped in. Not a candy cane or Christmas package of m&m’s to be found. All the shelves that had been Christmas related just on the 22nd(clearly, I should have remembered to get everything THAT day,) were replaced with all Valentine’s Day and Easter stuff. Plenty of chocolate bunnies to buy. I figured the “leftover” Christmas stuff must be shoved on a side shelf somewhere, but customer service said they were stocking for Valentine’s Day. She was, however, surprised when I said they also had Easter stuff out.