This should be illegal, expediting holidays in department stores and then pushing them out of stores before we can even buy all the things in a timely manner. South Portland's Homegood's has already moved onto Christmas like we're skipping Thanksgiving! What is this?! There's got to be a calculated reason behind this because it seems like this year we're one season ahead at all times. Here's where my FBI skills took me as I tried to find out that reason. Blame what's called the "retail calendar year".

What is a retail calendar year?

According to awin.com, a retail year differs from the regular 12-month calendar year that we're used to. It breaks the year into four and five week periods rather than months. So this might be the logic behind seeing Christmas decorations for sale in the beginning of October. It's not that places like the South Portland TJMaxx & Homegoods are cray cray, they're just following their system which I'm sure comes directly from corporate.

Awin says, "Primarily, 4-4-5 and 4-5-4 methods are used. Retail sales are heavily dependent on weekend days, and the number of weekend days in a specific month varies from year to year".

 

So there you have it. I used to work at a TJMaxx in MA while I was in college to pay the bills, and all I remember is constantly getting all the seasonal stuff in a few weeks earlier than people would like to see it. It's just one big corporate calculation!

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