Damn retailers kill the summer buzz every year on July 5.

[grasswire]

Back to school! It's everywhere, right after July 4!

Just when summer is starting to settle in and feel all summery. Lazy, crazy, hazy days and the livin' is easy. Your ma is good looking and fish are jumpin and all that. Fireflies in the dusk and tree frogs serenading. Bare feet and wading pools. Popsicles and carnivals. Sweet, sweet crickets and sweeter corn. Clouds across the moon and an afternoon nap with the newspaper over your head....

And here come the retailers with the backpacks and the pencils and the lunch boxes and the new shoes and killing the buzz seven weeks before Labor Day!

Stop it!!

Stop it!!

[fizzgig]

1. already?

when i was a kid, it wasn't back to school until the first couple weeks of august.

[Sherman A1]

2. Yup!

The joke at work, is "the kids have been out of school for 20 minutes, let's get the back to school stuff out."

I think it's silly myself, but there really is nothing in retail to promote at this time, hence the BTS stuff. The Summer items all go on sale after the 4th and it's just a matter of either they are sold or selling down, so there is no other option than to rush the next "thing" out there.

[hobbit709]

3. Like everything else

Day after Labor Day the Halloween crap starts. Day after New Years, the Valentine's Day crap starts, day after that the Easter crap. It's the only way they can get people to buy, buy, buy.

[Locut0s]

6. ^^ This!

[RavensChick]

15. Exactly!

I'm already seeing BTS ads on TV as of last week. That's when the kids start freaking out.

[jmowreader]

4. Where else are they going to put it?

When we were kids, back to school was made in America. You set it up with the manufacturer to have it on the stores' loading docks two weeks before school started.

Now it's made in China. You order it a year in advance, they ship it in May, distribution centers get it June 20 and stores get it July 5.

[Arugula Latte]

5. I know!! Pisses me off!!

[AsahinaKimi]

7. LIKE THIS?

[RavensChick]

16. Yes!

That commercial is the best one of all time! When I first saw this, I was cracking up! This one never gets old.

[JNelson6563]

20. That is such a classic!

How I laughed and laughed the first time I saw it. It's brilliant!

Julie

[oregonjen]

21. Love it!

[Populist_Prole]

8. I hate that shit!!

I tried buying some winter gloves one february and was told they've pulled down the winter stuff and are gearing up for summer. Shit, when can I buy some swim trunks? Freakin December?

Same BS at a hardware /home improvement store when I tried to buy a new grill grate and cover for my BBQ grille: Too late as it was already september ( in the south no less! )

[Arugula Latte]

10. I live in the Northwest and it takes a long time for summer to gain traction.

There will be summer stuff in March and I'm thinking "Yeah, I can use that in, oh, four months or so." Then it finally becomes summer and they have to remind me that fall is just around the corner ... Bastids!

[grasswire]

13. yes, it's very depressing

what's worse, is if you don't comply with their rushed schedule you can forget finding what you want or need WHEN you want or need it. Everyone who complied with the rushed schedule snapped up all the good stuff.

There you are, in early August, looking for attractive summer shirt or heaven forbid a swim suit, and there's nuthin, nuthin.

[Arugula Latte]

14. I know. I'm never on the ball.

I guess that's what on-line shopping is for, though! I just ordered a hammock to replace our old one.

[rurallib]

9. look - they got a lot of junky shit yo sell and get out of their store

by Labor day when the christmas shit goes on sale.

[madmom]

11. Shit, I've seen places with christmas crap out already!

[RavensChick]

17. Already???

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

12. Your retail calendar

New Years Day - Final After Christmas/Valentine's Day
February 20 - St Patty's Day/Easter
March 20 - Final Easter
April 20 - Mother's Day
May 20 - Father's Day/Grads
June 20 - Independence Day
July 5 - Back to school
Labor Day - Halloween
October 20 - Thanksgiving/Christmas
November 20 - CHRISTMAS/Black Friday
December 20 - CHRISTMAS/New Years
December 24 1/2 - After Christmas

[Bombero1956]

18. I went to Costco yesterday

right next to the seafood, a large plastic skeleton and a small display of Halloween candles. In the stationary aisle Christmas ribbon.

[grasswire]

19. UGH!!

It sounds a little off-putting to have skeletons next to seafood. Poison? Or poisson?

[sharp_stick]

22. I took the kids to Despicable Me 2

yesterday and one of the before movie commercials was a Target back to school ad. A girl, sounded like a teenager, said loudly "What the Hell?" and my 8 year old daughter replied "I know right?".

Got a good laugh out of it anyway.

[Jokerman]

23. School starts here next week.

No doubt that the retailers push every buying event earlier every year but thanks to our new "balanced calendar" our back to school shopping time is now.

[grasswire]

24. I'll bet the kids LUV that. nt