“Where are the Pumpkins!”

Thought 11 year old me as I walked into the store with my parents.

For as long as I could remember we had always gone to my maternal grandparents’ house for Thanksgiving. My favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal was the blueberry and pumpkin pie, but I also got pumpkin pie from my paternal grandmother around thanksgiving. This double receiving of pumpkin pie made my food-loving heart very happy.

Or at least it did until that one fateful year when my paternal grandmother announced she would not be making any pumpkin pie this year. 

I was shocked, and upon further questioning she explained that she used fresh pumpkins to make her pie but hadn’t been able to get one before Halloween this year, therefore there would be no pie. Because, as everyone except 11 year old me knows, stores only sell pumpkins around Halloween because that’s when everybody’s carving their Jack O Lanterns.

Of course I still got some pie that year at our big thanksgiving feast and the next year my other grandma started using canned pumpkin so I got both my pies and my stomach was satisfied.

Looking back on that disappointing day I noticed a few things. First was a lack of Thanksgiving themed merchandise even though November had just started, and the second was my gluttonous appetite, both of which are actually very closely connected.

Skipping Holidays

So why is it that as soon as Halloween is over the shelves are instantly filled with Christmas icons and winter themed gifts, when it’s still almost a month before Thanksgiving starts? Simple, they do it to make more money.

Despite being one of the most popular Holidays and the second act of the Grand Holiday Quartet, Thanksgiving doesn’t really generate much business for anybody except turkey farmers. So instead of stocking the stores and website product pages with a bunch of Thanksgiving themed products that won’t sell, businesses jump right over it to get to the biggest holiday cash cow of the year: Christmas. 

And even though I’ve heard countless people subtly complain about 

“Putting out all this Christmas stuff, before it’s even Thanksgiving”

I also see them beginning to buy that same “Christmas stuff” as soon as it hits the shelves. Which brings forth all sorts of excuses for doing so…

“I’ve gotta get the good stuff now, otherwise it’ll all be sold out before I get to it”...

“Well I needed this stuff anyway”...

“There’s gonna be a big party next week and I want to make some sugar cookies for everyone” (this is where the gluttony starts to com in by the way)...

“I need to get my Christmas shopping done”...

And the list continues. If you or someone you know have ever complained about businesses skipping holidays then I’ve got some news for you: 

It’s your own fault people, deal with it.

Accommodating Different Types of Shoppers

When you have a big holiday coming up you’ve got three different kinds of customers to deal with. There are the Prepers who buy everything at least one month in advance (preferably two). Then there's the Buzzer Beaters who like to shop at the very last minute (they’re also the reason you should keep sending out emails about your site’s latest sale because nothing attracts these people like a countdown clock with only five minutes left on it). Last but not least are the Maybuys who may buy something today or they may come back in a week and buy it then, after all there’s no rush.

There is a fourth kind of buyer called the Leftover Lovers who prefer the after-holiday sales (I fall into this category), but they don’t apply to the pre-holiday rush so we’re gonna leave them out this time.

The bottom line is that because of all the different kinds of buyers that are out there businesses have to put things out super early, which sadly, means Thanksgiving gets side swiped so to speak. If they didn’t do it this way things could end up looking like an extended Black Friday; and yes that includes us here on the internet (although we wouldn’t have all the punch-outs and stampedes to deal with). 

Supply in demand problems are no joke, especially this year; I don’t think we’re going to forget the toilet paper scare anytime soon or the sight of barren shelves in the grocery store. Thankfully though, with your website people can’t see barren shelves, they just see an “out of stock” or “sold out” sticker.

So just like every other wise business person out there, make sure you're targeting all of your buyers by putting out the good stuff now and then replenishing it as you go. And for those of us who sell services rather than products, there’s no excuse we can hop on board the early-holiday-selling bandwagon too, after all the Prepers, Buzzer Beaters, Maybuys, and even the Leftover Lovers exist in every shopping space.

Now we’ll just have to see how the rest of the 2020 version of the Christmas shopping season goes both online and in-store, oh and while you’re at it…

 Have a great Thanksgiving! (Did you really think I was going to forget?)