I Hate Christmas...

...decorations that are up in stores in October and even a little bit in November, too. And I rarely go into stores around Christmas time anymore. But I actually love Christmas itself.
   "A Carpenters Christmas" booming in through the speakers at Bloomingdales on Nov. 19? People decorating trees with Jack-O-Lanterns a week before Halloween? When did all this start? Why do the stores do it? And why does it annoy, no really anger me, so much?
   So yesterday die frau and I are looking at jeans for her at Bloomingdales when I heard the Carpenters start in on me about chestnuts, and toys and those cool Budweiser Clydesdales , or whatever. When I lost it and had to go. The Christmas stuff really annoys me not because I hate Christmas, but because I really like Christmas and I only have about a solid month of genuine cheer shelflife in me before I burn out. And because of stores being the main culprit of far too early, gaudy decorations and such, and ultimately the mistletoe straw on my holiday back, I just don't go in anymore.
   I'm not sure when all this started. Certainly not when I was a kid. But I do know that it got way worse the more people shopped online. And I suspect that it's the stores response to online stores are kicking everyones ass around Christmas time. "Lets start earlier" (every year) they seem to say. Not the solution. Quite the opposite I think.
   The ONE definite advantage a store like Bloomingdales or Macy's has over stores like Amazon is, to use a internet-ty term, "User Experience". There are pieces of the UX (user experience) that websites just can't seem to replicate. The smells, decorations, people smiling at you, and general holiday feeling. User Experience Designers are people who create moods, feelings, "experiences", on how to interact with products or services, through web design. To borrow from Andy Budd, one of my favorite UX designers, places like Starbucks. A place that has probably one of the smartest user experience designs around. The user experience is so strong (store layout, colors, music, customer service, general feeling of well being, etc.) that people actually buy bags of coffee so they can recreate that "experience" at home. Some UX designers look to it for inspiration. They've really done it right, obviously.
   What is the point of all this rambling? Ok, listen up, stores. Are you listening? ...

   The reason people are leaving your stores or not going in at all is that your decorations and music are really loud and annoying and up way to early! This is why Amazon is kicking your ass every year! The "User Experience" in the stores is just , well, bad. It's the one advantage you have over online stores and you are blowing it. I do 90% of my holiday shopping online because of this.
 
   What are you doing wrong when people are going into your store with fistfulls of money , begging to give it to you, and you send them out screaming and cursing you. I'm no expert in business, but that doesn't sound profitable to me.

   Start your decorations later, not earlier, and people will come in. I know I would.

    I write all this because I want the holiday shopping experience to get better and I want the stores to succeed.  And I think the stores could learn something from UX Designers like UX Designers have learned something from the stores.