Arrrgggghhh - or something similar!

[Geoff]

Christmas comes early for shoppers in Oxford Street.
One of the country's top stores is to start its Christmas trading 145 days before the holiday.
Selfridges in Oxford Street will launch its Christmas season on 2 August - its earliest-ever start for the store.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-10677562

[Nature's Babe]

Well the wealthy who shop there have more money to spend than most so I guess they find it easier to spend more if they start early !

[alan refail]

I understand all the Christmas stuff will be cleared away at the end of November to make way for their Easter display, so shop early!

[Elderflower]

Talking of Christmas -- well, why not?
Clearing out a drawer I found an Argos gift card that a cousin sent me the Christmas before last but I mislaid it.
When I tried to spend it at the weekend the assistant said that it had expired!
Expired!
How can that be? He gave Argos twenty quid to pre-pay any purchase I wanted to make and now they`ve just pocketed it because I wasn`t quick enough.
What a liberty!

[JohnN]

Can't agree with NB that Selfridges is a store for the wealthy - in fact it's a bit downmarket. Harrods is for the wealthy and John Lewis for the intelligent.
John N

[Shallot Man]

Elderflower. Worth a letter to Head office. You have nothing to loose. I always put copy to The daily Mail at the bottom, though I never send it, but does help in their decision making, bad publicity Etc.

[Elderflower]

Hmmm - worth a try, eh? For the cost of a stamp.

[Nature's Babe]

LOL Shows how long since I shopped in London.

[Monika]

JohnN, I do like the "John Lewis for the intelligent". Does Waitrose count, too?

I haven't been to London for at least 30 years, but when our children had exchange students to stay from France and Germany, we used to take them to London to see the usual sights and also have a snack at Harrods and just buy a small item there, so that they could go home with a Harrods bag. In fact, my youngest (now well into her forties herself) bought a quite reasonably priced French T-shirt at Harrods which she wore for years and it still looked smart and very expertly tailored.

[JohnN]

Just after we got married 50 years ago my wife wanted to go to London to buy a winter coat and I suggested we went to Harrods "Budget Dept". She was aghast, thinking of the cost, but I persuaded her and she got a super coat for just £14, which lasted for many years. So I was being flippant in my comments - actually Selfridges had (has?) a good food hall and I once spent a week in Bordeaux wine tasting with their wine buyer.
Yeah, OK, Waitrose counts!
John N

[Primrose]

It's incredible isn't it? Who wants to be shopping for Christmas cards in a heatwave (unless you live in Australia of course). I think this blatant commercialism just makes people angry, especially now in times of recession. However I suppose Oxford Street is a little different from the rest of the country as you'll hardly find an English person there - it's full of foreigners and tourists, so I suppose we should be grateful they're spending their money there.
Frankly in this household we avoid London like the plague. Too much noise, concrete, dirt, pollution and there is absolutely no point in asking for directions if you get lost because everybody is either a foreigner or a tourist.

[glallotments]

Primrose
Who wants to go Christmas shopping at any time is beyond me!

[Elaine]

Glallotments....I'm with you on that one.
Last week, I had just said to my husband, that now the schools are breaking up for their summer holidays, someone will be mentioning Christmas and that I would wallop the first person who mentioned it to me. That person turned out to be my son, who is in the R.A.F and was booking his Christmas leave...so I forgave him.
My Dad's birthday is at the end of August and last year I popped into the card shop early in the month, to buy his card, only to be confronted with a full wall display of Christmas cards and only two runs of "Father" birthday cards, none of which were suitable for an adult to send to an elderly Dad.

I always have to buy my son's card in summer, as his birthday is in November and there is no chance of buying a decent card then.

It should be made law, that Christmas stuff should not be in the shops until October, at the very earliest. I feel very strongly about the season being rammed down our throats earlier every year.

Geoff..most definitely a long and resounding Aaarrrrrgggghhhhh!

Cheers.

[glallotments]

How about banning it 'til December Elaine?

I don't think card shops think you like your family very much as I can never find a nice card for my sister and as her birthday is next week I am going to have to search quickly.

My husband's is in Janury and they them have X cards on sale for the year after! Note avoidance of the nasty word!

[PLUMPUDDING]

December is quite early enough for me. We always used to laugh at my Gran sending her Christmas cards out at the end of November so they wouldn't be caught in the Christmas rush. When it starts in October I'm sick of the sight of all the tacky rubbish after a couple of weeks and could quite happily ignore it all together.