Posted on 07/24/2010 6:00:58 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Retailers hold Black Friday-style summer sales for Christmas shoppers
By Ylan Q. Mui
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 23, 2010; A14
Looks as though Santa's summer vacation is getting cut short.
Retailers are trying to drum up some Christmas magic five months early with Black Friday-style sales that they hope will put shoppers in the spending spirit. At Target, the clock begins ticking on its 24-hour sale Friday. Toys R Us had daily mystery discounts this week and bonus promotions Friday and Saturday. And Sears and Kmart, owned by the same company, have brought back Christmas-club savings plans.
Some of the sale merchandise is traditional holiday fare -- video games, toys, Blu-ray players -- but other products would seem odd under the tree. Target has 25 percent off tank tops and bathing suits.
Maybe the North Pole is having a heat wave?
"It's not connected to Christmas," said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of consumer research firm America's Research Group. "It's just a title of an event."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
P!
Amazing how lowering prices brings in customers.
What day isn’t a big sale day at most stores?
It may bring in customers, but if margins are slashed to the bone, I don’t know how much goods any sales will do retailers.
Ain’t gonna happen to me, I want a new 1080P plasma TV, Sears has them on sale.
Aint buying it.
I hear TONS of new advertising on the radio, things I don’t normally hear like ads for people to buy Rolex watches.
Aint buying it.
The bombardment of advertising has become an incessant assault upon every minute of our lives, probing and prying, trying to spook us into jumping at the lure.
Turn it off, record all your TV shows on a PVR or such, skip listening to regular commercial fed radio.
I don’t care about all those poor people in advertising losing their jobs.
My job itself isn’t secure, I’m not sacrificing my limited income to support others.
Starting the Christmas season so much earlier, when people have no money is ridiculous to start with.
but for Obama and the propaganda machine, it means they can spout such a good Christmas season of sales (even though it started in July!)
Something is most assuredly wrong when Christmas shopping is pushed back 6 months.
But hey—According to The Usurper Marxist Onada, his band of angry commies and the state run media the economy is improving.
I keep asking the question: Exactly what sector of the economy is generating the demand necessary to fuel a recovery? No one is answering the question.
Christmas in July sales are old news. Black Friday sales have been a bust for years, retailers offer a small quantity at a low price.
“”Target has 25 percent off tank tops and bathing suits. “” Target always sells seasonal stuff on clearance early so they can make room for the next batch of seasonal stuff.
“...have brought back Christmas-club savings plans.”
I did the banking for the store yesterday and the bank has signs up all over the place advertising their ‘Christmas Savings Club.’ X-numner og days to go until Christmas. Yeesh!
We really ARE in for a wild ride this season...and the next and the next at a minimum, aren’t we?
Customers are constantly asking me, ‘What’s On Sale?’ or if I’ll give them a discount on something...just for walking in the d@mn door! Never seen anything like it, and I’ve been in retail for a very long time now...about 12 years, total, in the Garden Center biz.
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