It's December 31st, time to roll out the Valentine's Day stock!

Yes, you just read that correctly. I, myself, work at a grocery store who happens to have already placed out their Valentine's Day merchandise, as well as starting to take orders for flower arrangements. Talk about a play on retail. All year you see it, and we seem to notice more and more. Every year it seems like the decorations, candy, and posters for all of the holidays appear earlier than the year before. Christmas decorations are out the day after Halloween, and Valentine's Day candy is out the weekend after Christmas. Is it ever too early? I think so.

Holidays have turned into a retail game, simply put. Every big name store looking for new deals, new merchandise, and new options to offer their customer base so they come in and spend money. Most of the time, it works. However, there is the off chance that customers get weary of spending money on new things every year for the same holidays. For Christmas, new decorations and presents, and for Halloween there is new decorations and candy for the trick or treaters.

They lure you in with their sales and specials when you should be thinking about more important things than shopping; yes, for Thanksgiving and Christmas you go out and buy food for your family, but you are also already shopping for Christmas presents and all those extras you don't need. Christmas lights are great, but do you really need that new set of lights that is controlled by an app on your phone? No way!

Anyway, the holidays are a new way for stores to make money. "Welcome to Corporate Holiday, please spend your money as we see fit."