There I was, on a crisp summer’s morning on the first weekend in September. Going about my usual day of food shopping at our local supermarket when I noticed something peculiar. As the temperature caused me to sweat with a nice cool 20C, a strange sight lay before me. “It’s Christmas Time!” the newly opened section of the supermarket proclaimed. Filled to the brim with perishable Christmas foods and Christmas themed gifts. Bemused by the sight, I pulled out my phone, wondering if between the freezer sections I had time travelled to the middle of November when these sections are usually up and everywhere. Only to see that the date read “4th September”. Confused, I wondered, why are the Christmas items and sections out for sale in early September? Surely most people would think this is too early to start getting into the Christmas spirit and filling yourself full of mince pies. After all, if you bought them now they’d pass their best before or use by dates before Christmas was even upon us. So my question is, when is too early for Christmas for these supermarkets?
Every year since I can remember it’s felt like supermarkets are opening their Christmas sections earlier and earlier. It used to be reserved for December and maybe November, but now you’d have a harder time finding a supermarket without a Christmas section in the summer. What is it that is driving this? Well for starters about 30% of Brits reportedly start their christmas shopping in September so maybe these sections are to cater to this sizable portion of the public that are in need of things like wrapping paper, gift bags, and christmas cards so that they can get things ready as they go throughout the months towards the big day.
But whilst this answers the question about gift wrapping and gift bags etc it then raises the question of, why do they need baked goods like mince pies that will go off before December even arrives? Well apparently, once again, another sizable portion of the population do. By the time November comes around a reported 5.5 million mince pies were sold. So despite them being a very seasonal item that people tend to enjoy in the days leading up to winter, a good portion of our nation loves this British sweet treat so much that they’ll have it as soon as they hit shelves in early September.
So I guess the lesson from this is that there apparently isn't a too early. The supermarkets make money off it otherwise they wouldn’t do it which means plenty of people are buying these goods all across the UK. Even if most of us wouldn't want to be reminded of the fact that the summer is coming to an end and with it comes the cold and ice of winter and of course the rapid commercialisation of our longest traditions.
