Yesterday was my mother's birthday (Happy Birthday, Mom!).
As a dutiful son, I went in search of a birthday card at Eason's, Dublin's largest bookseller/stationer, whose card dept. is on the first floor. As I got off the escalator, imagine my shock when the first display turned out to be Christmas cards!
Unbelievable!
I mean, I know the summer's been bad and all, but we haven't had snow yet, and the kids have only been back in school a week - it's just wrong.
At this time of year, Eason's, like many stationers, make their money from third-level students preparing for the college year as well as from book sales, magazines, etc. Nobody's going to be buying Christmas cards at this time of year, so if anything, they're only wasting space with the floor displays.
And calling it 'Gift Ideas' instead of 'Christmas Greetings' isn't fooling anybody.
I've just kicked off an email to the store's general enquiries address (sales@easons.com) but I'm not expecting much in response.
I just sometimes despair, y'know?
Is everything just about money?
Doesn't anything retain it's original meaning anymore?
I don't know; the cynical answers to those two questions would of course be 'Yes' and 'No'. But I've gone beyond cynical at this point - now I'm just angry.
Angry at companies who pull this kind of stunt and consistently get away with it; angry at legislators who let them, angry at consumers who don't seem to want to do anything about it.
But most of all I'm angry at myself, because I don't usually get angry, especially over stupid stuff like this...
Damn it all.
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3 comments:
It's silly, isn't it? I thought they'd at least wait until Halloween had passed.
Yeah - a friend of mine works in packaging and promotional display design, and he's working on Christmas campaigns right now. I get that things have to be prepared early to be ready at the right time, but this sort of behaviour is just ridiculous and depressing.
But hey - could be worse, I guess...
I haven't seen any christmas stuff overhere yet, but they did get stuff for St Nicolas (5th of december) like spice-nuts and other candy that should only be sold from half november till the 5th of december.
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