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Christmas Selling Season Early for Some

LAS VEGAS -- On a sun-soaked Monday afternoon, shoppers entering the Wal-Mart store at 3041 N. Rainbow Blvd. at Cheyenne Avenue moved quickly between air-conditioned cars and the store's entrance to better escape the day's 102-degree temperature.

Once inside, many were greeted by a scene that belied the day's summerlike weather. Near the store's south entrance, a 10-foot inflatable snowman and Santa Claus towered over shelves displaying wreaths, colored lights and other products typically associated with the December holiday season.

Although outside still feels like summer, inside many Las Vegas-area retail outlets it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Along with Wal-Mart, local retailers including J.C. Penney Co., Dillard's and Robinsons-May have set out limited displays featuring Christmas trees, decorations and other holiday-themed items more than three months before Dec. 25.

The rush to put up Christmas displays, however, has many local shoppers yelling: Ho, ho, hold on.

"It's a joke that these stores don't want for this until after Thanksgiving," said Las Vegas resident Ken Miller as he left Wal-Mart Monday, officially the first day of autumn. "Christmas has become too commercialized and now everything is about the almighty dollar."

Sherry Babcock, a manager in charge of visual displays at the J.C. Penney store in Henderson's Galleria at Sunset mall, said she heard negative comments similar to Miller's when she and her staff set up several Christmas trees in her store last week.

The bulk of J.C. Penney's Christmas decor won't go up until late-October, however, and Babcock contends this year's holiday displays arrived no earlier than years past.

"People swear we put these things up earlier, but every year I do it during the same week in mid-September," Babcock said. "I think people's lives are so rushed that it seems like it's earlier to them and reminds them that they have to start thinking about shopping for Christmas."

Scott Krugman, spokesmansenior public relations director for the National Retail Federation, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association, also said retailers aren't jumping the gun with Christmas-themed decor.

"A lot of holiday displays are so elaborate that (stores) try to get a little bit of a head start, and little by little (they'll add things) until we're closer to the more-festive holiday time of year, when those displays become full-blown," Krugman said. "And (setting up early) also puts the buzz in a consumer's head that the holiday season is around the corner."

Ralph "Hoot" Jones, whose family-owned Ralph Jones Display has provided holiday decorations to local residents and businesses since 1966, said his showroom at 2576 E. Charleston Blvd. now includes holiday materials year-round after overcoming initial resistance from local consumers.

"Back in the late 1960s when we'd put this stuff up before Thanksgiving, some of these old boys would want to pull you off the truck and beat the hell out of you," Jones said. "That resentment died off 25 years ago, (but) now the department stores seem to putting in their Christmas merchandise in August and are jumping it further forward all the time."

Jones said his company displays holiday goods well before December because much of its business comes from decorating local hotels, a task that requires months of advance planning. Jones doesn't believe holiday fare should be displayed so early in the year when marketing to everyday consumers.

"People get really tired of it, and I don't think stores are doing themselves any favors leaving it out that long," Jones said.

Regardless of when a store displays such goods, a survey released last week Sept. 17 by the National Retail Federation said holiday retail sales are projected to increase 4 percent this year compared with 2001, thanks largely to recent improvements in the U.S. economy.

"Consumers this year have been cautious in their spending, but nevertheless continue to bolster retailers' performance," said Rosalind Wells, chief economist for the federation. "NRF sees the economy growing around 3.5 percent in the second half of this year, which should be a solid enough environment for reasonably good holiday sales."

Wells said home-related merchandise and leisure goods will do well this holiday season. In addition, apparel demand is likely to increase because many consumers have postponed such purchases.

Last year, holiday retail sales rose by 5.6 percent as many Americans increased their regular holiday spending following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A federation survey of 2001 shopping patterns said consumers planned to spend an average of $940 per household on gifts for family and friends, decorations, greeting cards, and food or candy.

Krugman said the federation will release more in-depth projections for this year's holiday shopping outlook Oct. 16 - only 69 days before Christmas.

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