Posted on 09/12/2013 12:52:35 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Kmart should be ashamed for airing its first holiday commercial some 100 days before Christmas when temperatures topped 90 degrees in much of the country, some shoppers say.
"I do not want to see Christmas ads when it is still SUMMER," wrote a customer on Kmart's Facebook page. "I will not be shopping at Kmart this year due to your advertising this early, I don't care what the reason."
Kmart, a unit of Sears, is defending the timing of the new ad, saying it aired early to announce the rollout of a new promotion that began Sept. 8.
In a statement to ABC News, Kmart said, "Customers can plan in advance in order to take advantage of layaway for holiday purchases."
Another Facebook user told Kmart, "There is no reason to make the holidays into a consumer nightmare. You should be ashamed."
Retailers are gearing up for the holiday selling season, when many companies ring up 20 percent of the year's sales.
"The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the shortest it can ever be on retail selling days. [Retailers] have to start earlier," said Jan Kniffen, retail analyst and CEO of J Rogers Kniffen Worldwide Enterprises.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
The owner of Sears has looted the brand and sold off the real estate.
Given they are talking about lay-away buying, then it makes sense.
They give people 10-12 weeks to pay for stuff.
The reason I like it is that they’re encouraging buying rather than going into credit card debt.
FWIW, I find that positive.
Also, I could give a rip about “commercial Christmas”. As many have pointed out, late December probably was the time of the incarnation and not the birth...when the light came into the world.
As Rainman said. Kmart sucks.
And yet no retailer would dare have a Martin Luther King day sale. That would be SHTF time. The NAACP, SPLC the racial racketeers would be wielding their wrath and the DoJ would be investigating.
She was just the Blue-Light Special walking around.
I found their back to school tv ads showing little kids doing hip hop a lot more discusting.
Arbor Day
It makes some business sense for the following reasons:
-Kmart offers layaway chain wide. Walmart allows individual store managers to decide whether they want the hassle (which most of them do not). So there is some competitive advantage.
-Good way to sell to people short on money in a tough economy (it boomed back in the 70’s).
-Kmart captures their cash in the layaway payments. So they get to invest that money for a time even if the customer ultimately cancels. Plus that’s less they can spend at the competition.
-As many here have pointed out, Kmart has become decidedly downscale, and layaway is a proven winner with this crowd.
K-Mart made a huge mistake back in the early 80’s when they still were competitive with Wal-Mart. They backed off of a pure grocery section, and they went a cheap stuff-a-store plan.
Grocery was burdened by a union, so I forgive them that, but they should have re-entered after ditching the union.
Wal-Mart became a destination store and K-Mart became an afterthought.
At this point, the best thing they could do would be to rebrand all their boxes as Sears Retail, bring back food, and turn the K-Mart name into a competitor in small towns to Family Dollar.
Oh, an Amish holiday. How quaint.
Were any Kmarts unionized? I had never heard of that.
Only unionized discount chain I was aware of was Meijers up in Michigan.
While in college, just out of the army, I worked at a K-Mart food section. Union rules allowed the others to claim my hours each week. After having about 25 whittled down to half a shift at graveyard time for a few weeks in a row, I said to self, “Self, this is stupid.” and went to find non-union gainful employment at P&G.
kwanzaa?
Kresge’s 5&10 — That would be an absolutely awesome relaunch. Great idea.
I spend less and less at Christmas time.
Isn’t that an off-shoot religious sect of KawaBonga?
Secretary’s Day?
No different than starting your Presidential Election Campaign 2 years in advance....
Sexist!
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