I visited a Lowe’s store yesterday, looking for the new Kobalt CaseStack modular tool box system (again), among other things.
Maybe I’d find some new tools? New tool deals? New Halloween props or decorations? A seasonal reset?
Well, there was a seasonal reset alright, with plastic Santas greeting everyone as they enter the store.
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It seems a bit early for Christmas trees, snowmen, and Santa displays, given that it’s now still September and Christmas is 3 full months away.
Last year, holiday deals were pushed up to mid-October, presumably due to shipping delays and concerns about timely replenishment. But these aren’t tool deals or “gift center” displays.
Lowe’s had slim Halloween offerings, in general and especially compared to the nearby Home Depot store. I suppose they had to fill the space with something?
And in case you’re wondering, this Lowe’s store had nothing new tool-related. The Kobalt CaseStack modular tool box system continues to elude me.
fred
Christmas marketing strategy always amuses me. One ploy seems to be focused on “buy early and often” – sort of the same philosophy as the shampoo salesman’s motto of “rinse lather and repeat.” But with decorations – I can’t imagine that Lowes will restock once they run out – so this must be aimed at capturing buyers who are inclined to shop exceedingly early. There are shoppers who feel that they better buy when the see it – rather than wait and risk it being out of stock.
It may also be possible that Lowes timed their acquisition of Christmas inventory to avoid potential shipping delays from China. Then when inventory arrived on-time – they decided to put it out on the selling floor – rather than in the warehouse.
Still, I’m with you that they are egregiously pushing the season.
Nick C.
I think the main reason we see Christmas stuff so early is so that retail locations have longer to sell the decorations at full/premium price points. As we inch closer to black friday and cyber monday, then the inevitable days before christmas rush, retailers are forced to lower prices or be left with overstock to deal with.
Joe E.
They have Christmas stuff out but still can’t get any of those USA Craftsman tools on the floor.
Shocking.
Munklepunk
It’s faster to ship from China than Texas.
Charles_A
Many moons ago I had a summer job auditing at Lowe’s – those seasonal items have 3x margins, at least.
Hand tools are bread and butter at around 1x markup (Lowe’s pays $10 for a hammer, you pay $20). Power tools are much lower – only around 10% – 20% over wholesale, lumber is probably the lowest – that goes out the door at close to cost.
BUT that junk coming in from China makes bank.
Brandon
Interesting. I have no experience in retail, but my assumption was going to be that they are putting it out because it makes them money. And, more money than I even suspected.
Munklepunk
Kinda like how places like best buy don’t make squat on TV’s, they get their money from accessories like cables.
MM
Beat me to it!
I worked for Best Buy one summer many years ago, right before I went off to college. I remember that the markup on things like big screen TVs, video game consoles, cameras, laptops, PCs, and major appliances was very low. It was usually cheaper to purchase those things at retail than it was to use the employee discount program which was cost + 5%. The markup on things like video games, software, CDs/DVDs was about 50%. Cables, organizers, accessories, chargers, etc…markup several hundred %.
TomD
Margins on big ticket items are often low – especially if they’re what you’ll cost-compare.
But accessories people rarely check or care because they want it now.
MFC
I have to say I prefer to see Christmas decorations over Halloween, so while I agree it’s exceedingly early, I am glad for it.
Gregg
I was in a store 2 weeks ago. Both Halloween/ Christmas wee both on display
John+E
This is nothing new. Many years ago, on the first day after Labor Day, I walked into a Lowe’s and they were literally rolling barbecue grills out one way and rolling Christmas trees in the other.
Mark M.
I am a big Lowe’s fan but this seems desperate. I believe I read where they just let their CMO go so it’ll be interesting to how they execute in Q4 given what appears to be some high-level shuffling on the marketing side.
Scotty.
Shows where Lowes priority lies, if anyone is interested @completelycordless on IG last week posted a reel detailing an outrageous sequence of events dealing with Lowes “pro desk”. Not sure why any trades would want to do business there any longer.
Dave
I could rant for days about the HD “slow” desk and how many hours and gray hairs it cost me before I finally just got all of my senior staff their own credit cards (which is still a pain because I’d rather it be a laborer fetching parts but I’m not paying him to sit in line for an average 2 hours/trip).
Not to say Lowes is any better, I just wouldn’t know. In my home county we have at least 20 HDs and maybe three Lowes. There’s always going to be a HD within 15 minutes of one of my client properties, so there’s no reason to drive 3 towns and 40 minutes away to get to essentially the same store.
yadda
All of your big box stores are putting Christmas on the shelf. Home decorations sell best through the first week in December. Then consumer focus switches to gift buying.
Bonnie
Really? I was at both Joanne’s and Home Depot on Sunday and both were barely into Halloween, with little to no seasonal Christmas stuff.
Franck B.
I did a search on HD’s site and can see that my local stores have many Christmas decorations available to pick up today, with aisle locations. But there’s a lot more that’s not out and ready for store pickup without locations.
Maybe they put it out right after you left, or the store you visited is slower at getting things set up due to labor shortages, or your store has a less conspicuous place to put later holiday offerings on display until it gets closer and it gets moved into the Halloween area, or your store just doesn’t have it.
There’s a lot of possibilities here which allow your observation!
Dennis
Walmart has all of its Christmas Stuff out as of Last week as well. Pretty soon it will be starting in July. It is getting rediculous.
Robeto
It’s not just Lowes trying to sell material things for Christmas in September. Costco and Michael’s had Christmas decorations for sale at least since Mid-September.
Charles thanks for the info on mark-ups. Always find that insight interesting.
Stacey Jones
Probably just trying to avoid the inevitable going out of business. Big Orange is eating their lunch!
Jim Felt
Always remember that in the fairly early 2000’s a Jack Welch acolyte nearly sunk HD’s ship too. Went on to screw up Chrysler as well.
It all rolls down from the top of these companies.
But yeah. I have nearly no use for Lowe’s either. ;-)~
fred
My local Lowes is about 1 mile away from a HD. If I stop at that Lowes what I find/don’t find usually reminds me that I should have just gone to HD. I can never seem to find everything on my shopping list at Lowes – and help to find what I can’t is nonexistent. They always seem fairly busy – so others must like them.
Chaz
I’m all for it if it means less halloween crap.
Don’t mind that holiday, but i’ve seen too many people blow all sorts of money on decorations and costumes only to poor mouth during holiday season that they can’t afford a good Christmas for little Timmy.
Franck B.
I guess this kind of behavior is happening all over the world. I am in Germany now and they’ve already been celebrating Oktoberfest for at least a week.
(That’s a joke.)
Yadda
Home Depot, Lowes, Sam’s Club, Costco, and Walmart all have Christmas displayed around here. Some have more than others, but all have some Christmas.
Jim Felt
Having long vendored for one of them June or July was traditionally the end of the “Christmas” rush.
Any advantage their buyers can gain is their motto. Maybe just move Christmas on the calendar?
Nathan
Being a kid of the 80’s I remember when this stuff didn’t start before Dec 1.
Jim Felt
I dunno. Most of these big boxes weren’t truly national in that long ago (in retail) era. Mom and Pops (in comparison) weren’t so trigger happy.
JR
I usually detest the early arrival of seasonal items at retailers. However, after having moved to the South I found out that if you don’t buy your Christmas lights early (way too early!) then you likely have missed out for the season. I was shocked that things were of OOS in early November. Not this year, as I bought last week, Ha!
Yes, yes, I know. I ma now part of the problem. 🙁
MIKE GUENTHER
Before retirement, I worked construction in the retail environment.(Meaning we were doing upgrades and remodeling during normal store hours, being cognizant of customers being in the way sometimes.)
It was always funny to see the Grim Reaper standing next to Santa Claus near the end of September, beginning of October with maybe a stack of Pumpkins or a Cornucopia between them.
Julian Tracy
Other than their larger than HD’s selection of Dewalt tools, Is there ANY good reason to go to Lowes for anything unless there’s no other choice?
Crappy plumbing selection, very limited electrical dept and nothing special any other dept.
I will say they do appliance clearances in their isles pretty well.
TonyT
Not a lot, but I just did a Lowe’s order for some stuff that wasn’t available from HD including drip irrigation (Mister Landscaper), Olfa blades (apparently no longer at HD, based on my online search), and an empty DeWalt tough case.
Jason
I work in retail (store level)
I can’t speak for Lowe’s specifically but some companies (including my employer) packed up lots of stuff from later year ( it arrived so late it was never delivered to the stores). Last year’s late arrival product started shipping to stores in August, and they already had us set Christmas toys. I suspect something similar is happening with Lowe’s.
Also if they didn’t get much Halloween then it makes more sense. Empty space in retail is big negative, it gives customers a bad vibe and the suit types at corporate absolutely hate empty space.
Also since we may be in or heading for a recession or some economic downturn, the philosophy may be get the money while you can.
Harry
My wife dragged me to Hobby Lobby last weekend. They not only had aisle upon aisle of Christmas stuff from floor to ceiling, it was on sale. Like half off on sale.
Jeremy R
Home depot was setting up Christmas junk today. Sad
TomD
Was it last year where shipping delays put the Christmas stuff out almost at the end of December or later? Perhaps they ordered early in a panic.
KWright
My local Menards has Christmas items out as well.
mattd
my closest homedepot set it up last week, so it is definitely not just lowes.
Stuart
I went to two Home Depot’s in the past week, both only had Halloween decorations.
Just when I think I have retail figured out…
Joe H
Eventually stores will be having big Christmas sales in April.
Ball_bearing
Maybe they have a lot of Puerto Rican customer(jk)?
In Puerto Rico some businesses (it started with a furniture store) have “Navidades en Septiembre” Christmas in September. Those are marketing events with plenty of discounts, that run through the whole month of september. They do sell christmas ornaments and the like. This year even Walmart has Christmas stuff on the shelves (no halloween stuff yet though).
Robert
A little bit off topic, but relates to the HD versus Lowes.
Question for you folks that worked at Home Depot.
What are HD’s rules for how fast they can drive forklifts in the vicinity of customers?
I ask because I had a very unpleasant experience this evening. A forklift with a flag man in front came up behind me in the main center corridor. Told me to move to the side. I did after I realized what was going on, but they were so close on my heels I actually got startled. I was walking at a normal pace, not looking at merchandise but heading to the far end of the store. Why did they need to go so fast? I’d estimate almost twice as fast as walking because as I followed to where I was going the forklift was passing 2 aisles for every one I passed. To me it was unsafe. What if someone came quickly from the perpendicular- like around one of the fridges lining the corridor, what if I was hard of hearing, what if I stumbled cause I was startled? When I asked to talk to the store manger, it was the assistant manager and he doesn’t see a problem with it, since they told me to move to the side to him it was fine. Turns out he says he was either driving the fork lift or was watching, I didn’t get which as I was so surprised he didn’t see a problem with going at that speed with customers in the store. I found it very rude, in essence saying their time is more valuable than the customer’s.
MM
Well, I just learned that this isn’t just Lowes. I hit Home Depot yesterday to pick up a concrete splash block, and the moment I got in the door there was Xmas stuff everywhere. I didn’t see a single Halloween or Thanksgiving decoration though.