How summer is stealing Christmas

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Today we're spotlighting the return of the Christmas shopping season. Yep, in August. Twinkling lights, reindeer and dancing Grinches are showing up earlier and earlier in both brick-and-mortar and online stores. Experts are predicting the Christmas mission creep will continue this year as retailers try to entice belt-tightening American consumers.

WHO’S JUMPING THE GUN ON XMAS SALES

• The Christmas creep is trumping not only Halloween, but also competing with consumer spending on back-to-school and Labor Day sales.
• Home Depot started rolling out holiday-themed merchandise online last week. The company says early demand for holiday products is growing.
• Its rival Lowe’s says over the past two years, it saw a spike in holiday decor searches as early as July. Lowe’s says budget-conscious shoppers dealing with the impact of high inflation “are looking to spread out their holiday shopping and start earlier.”
• Costco has Christmas merch alongside Halloween products.
• Dollar Tree did a one-day “Christmas in July” online shopping event with half-off shipping.

WHY SO SOON?

• It kicked into gear two years ago when Amazon and Walmart pushed up Christmas merchandise to October, afraid of tepid consumer demand from the pandemic. Last year Amazon upped the game with their “Prime Early Access” sales for two days in October.
• That’s pushed other retailers to roll out holiday merch earlier than ever so they don’t lose revenue to Amazon, says Zak Stambor, senior retail and ecommerce analyst with Insider Intelligence.
• Other reasons involve a store’s inventory. Retailers may “need to put something out on the floor” to replace sold-out summer products, and last year’s misfit Christmas items can bridge the gap until stores transition to fall, says Nikki Baird, VP of strategy at retail tech company Aptos.
• This year, the spreading out of holiday shopping is meant to woo consumers who are increasingly spending less on nonessentials. Inflation has families dishing out about $700 more per month than two years ago, as we wrote about last week in the PM Plug-In.

BUT IT'S STILL SUMMER

• “I do think there’s a limit as to how early the season can start as most shoppers don’t want to, and won’t, buy holiday items when they’re heading to the beach,” Stambor says.
• A retail analyst with market research firm Circana also wonders if shoppers will actually spend so early. “Consumers are in no rush to spend, and a lack of inspiration with so few new and exciting items makes for a ho-hum holiday at retail.” Still, he expects shoppers to eventually buy the gifts they may have been holding off on during a year focused on essentials-only shopping.

Have you started Christmas shopping already? What do you think about the shopping season’s slippery slope? Is it a win for your wallet or a nightmare before Christmas? Share your stories in the comments.?

Here are some other stories we're following today:

As you read this, a county jail in Atlanta is swarming with police, Secret Service and SWAT teams in place for the arrest and processing of former President Donald Trump on charges accusing him of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia. The district attorney is pushing for a quick timetable for bringing Trump to trial, and more of his 18 alleged co-conspirators are reaching bond agreements ahead of tomorrow’s deadline to turn themselves in. Click here for live updates of the latest developments and tune in to CNN TV for special live coverage tonight at 7 ET.

Downpours in Detroit blocked access to the airport’s main terminal this morning, canceling or delaying hundreds of flights. The National Weather Service says three inches of rain fell in five hours, causing flooding on roads and tunnels.

Researchers say one of Antarctica’s most iconic species has suffered “a massive loss.” Four out of five huge colonies of emperor penguins saw no chicks survive last year as the area experienced an enormous loss of sea ice.

US mortgage rates soar to 7.23%, reaching a high unseen since 2001. Mortgage rates have spiked during the Fed's historic inflation-curbing campaign, sending home affordability to its worst level in several decades.

T-Mobile announced today it will be laying off about 5,000 employees over the next five weeks. The job cuts – roughly 7% of the provider's workforce – will largely hit corporate and back-office positions, according to the letter T-Mobile’s CEO sent employees. Major tech companies like Meta and Microsoft have shed jobs over the past year as they batten down for possible economic headwinds in future.

Wildfire smoke from Canada seems to have sent more Americans to the ER for asthma issues in recent months. A study published by the CDC today found that ER visits for asthma were 17% higher than expected on days when wildfire smoke sent air quality into the Code Orange range. At that level, air pollution is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups.

"Barbie" has jumped over "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" to become the highest-grossing film of the year at US theaters. According to studio estimates, the film based on the iconic doll has made $575.4 million, outstripping the $574.2 million collected by the video game icon's animated feature. It's another feather in the cap for "Barbie," which had made more than $1.2 billion globally as of last week.

The FAA says it has hit its goal of hiring 1,500 new air traffic controllers this year. That’s good news for a US air industry strained for years by staffing shortages, but the downside is it takes two years to train a new air traffic controller. Staffing at control towers across the US are at a nearly 30-year low, and airports in major cities such as New York and Washington, DC, are flying fewer flights than usual to lessen the staffing strain.

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