With the economic picture looking about as attractive as the ghost of Jacob Marley, 
retailers are unboxing the reindeer earlier than ever this year. Up in Canada, stores large and small started playing the Christmas classics CD weeks ago. Costco has been softselling the holidays since July and says it will be in "full-blown" Christmas mode by the end of August. Here in the U.S., big retailers like Target, Sears and Toys "R" Us also launched the yuletide season in July. "We really want to create that sense of urgency," explains a Target spokeswoman. It sounds urgent, alright. It sounds positively desperate. But apparently it works. One in five shoppers these days buys Christmas gifts year-round and two-thirds hit the mall before Thanksgiving. What’s more, these headstarters spend twice as much the slugs who wait till after turkey day. We live by the simple philosophy that, while the early bird gets the worm, the second mouse gets the cheese. So we’ve always commenced our holiday shopping around Dec. 23. But soon this could be out of the question. More and more retailers these days are not only starting the holidays early, they’re ending them early too. Costco will have Christmas swept from the shelves by Dec. 1. (Oh well, so much for that 10-pound fruitcake we were going to get you.)
Christmas: the gift that keeps on gifting. Retailers are hung up on the holidays, of course, because for a lot of them the season is make or break. If your business falls in that category, you might want to check out the Unity Marketing 2010 Gifting Report, which promises to tell you what gifts people are giving not only for Christmas but for other holidays too, along with where they shop, how much they spend and how to target the gifting market. (Hey, we don’t make up the verbs, we just report them.) But you may have to cut back on your own gifting if you want to buy the report, which costs $3,500. Is it worth it? Maybe, depending on what you sell. Here, according the report, are the 10 most popular gifts of 2009: books, chocolates, women’s clothing, men’s clothing, soaps and lotions, toys, games, kids clothing, candles, flowers and wine. (We could also tell you the 10 least popular gifts but the people who gave them to us might get mad.)
Scariest job: Halloween store owner? As noted above, a lot of retailers chew their nails during the Christmas season. 
But imagine you owned a shop the depended entirely on one holiday per year. Guess that’s why so many of those Halloween stores open just for a couple of months, then close down again. It minimizes some of the risk. But it’s still a chancy business because you have to guess what costumes will be popular months ahead of time, when you buy your merchandise. Then again, it’s not exactly particle physics. Experts say the trendy looks this year will be vampires, Lady Gaga and Snooki (black dress, orange skin).
