Retailers readying for early holiday shopping

Monday is the first day of autumn, but for some area merchants, the focus is already very much on a certain winter holiday. Retailers are wishing you a “Merry Christmas” earlier than ever.

The Christmas shopping season used to begin the day after Thanksgiving. But that is no more, as the date has now been pushed up to right after Halloween.

Stores that sell December’s holiday decorations are stocking the shelves beginning in late summer to try and expand their sales volume and profitability.

But will the increasingly early jumpstart to Christmas actually pay dividends for business?

“I think households will determine the amount that they are going to spend,” explains UNLV Economics Professor, Dr. Keith Schwer. “They will simply spend the same amount distributed over as larger amount of days. I think in the final analysis, it probably doesn’t have much impact in the total level of revenues of the firms.”

In case you are counting, there are only 93 shopping days left until Christmas. Chances are that most of us will be decking the halls with “boughs of holly” long before then.