Target is delaying some in-store Christmas merchandising until after Thanksgiving, in response to customer complaints about “Christmas Creep.”
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas? Not at Target.
The retail giant announced this week that it “will ease up on Christmas signs and displays at the front entrances of stores until after Thanksgiving,” according to a Target spokeswoman. The company usually turns to Christmas right after Halloween. The company said the delay this year is in response to customer complaints about “Christmas Creep” — retailers’ tendency to rush out Christmas displays and merchandise in the early months of fall.
“They want us to pause, and be really intentional and recognize Thanksgiving,” Rick Gomez, the retailer’s chief marketing officer, told the Associated Press about the store’s customers. “What they don’t want us to do is go right into Christmas. So, we are going to respect that.”
Some writers and consumers already are applauding the decision.
“I think it’s a really smart move to take it one holiday at a time,” Lisa Rowan, a writer for the financial website The Penny Hoarder, told NBC News. “People love fall and people love Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving is a more universal holiday in the U.S. that appeals to a wider swath of the population.”
