On Consumerism: Time to start your christmas shopping

This past Monday, the woman in front of me at Family Dollar wheeled to the checkout counter her wagon filled with Christmas goodies. On Dec. 27.

Before removing the items from her basket, she asked the cashier: “Are these items 50 percent off?”

The cashier admitted she didn’t know.

The customer asked the cashier to scan one item to test the price.

Yup, it was 50 percent off. As were all her holiday-themed purchases.

Wow, I thought to myself. A smart shopper.

For she knew, as I’ve occasionally mentioned, that right after Christmas is the optimal time to start your holiday shopping — for the following year.

And she also knew to have the discount verified before proceeding.

Yes, folks, now is the time to get the best deals on certain items. You want snowman-themed wrapping paper? This is the week. You want a box of Christmas cards? This is the week. Another ornament? This is the week. More stockings to hang by the chimney with care? This is the week. Decorative plates, napkins, drinking glasses? This is the week. Bows, ribbons, and gift bags? This is the week. An artificial tree? Now’s the time.

As for real Christmas trees, even though their prices now are the lowest of the season, they won’t survive in your home another 12 months.

Those red- and green-wrapped Hershey’s Kisses and all those competing theme-wrapped chocolates? This is the week. Holiday-colored M&Ms? This is the week. A calendar for 2022? This is the week. Those fancy boxes of chocolates that contain the same chocolates as all-year long but have a different box design this time of year? This is the week.

If this year is like all prior years I’ve been around, this is the week when stores work feverishly to rid themselves of all Christmas or winter-themed merchandise. You can expect, at the very least, 50 percent off sales — and I’m referring to real 50 percent off sales, not buy one at full price to get a second one at 50 percent off. (The latter so-called sale means buy two and get 25 percent off both.)

Leading into the New Year and the week following New Year’s Day, the savings could be even greater than 50 percent.

Of course, not every item you see will be appropriate or desirable or available for use in December 2022. Edible items are perishable. Trees wither. But not paper. Alas, Hallmark won’t allow discounts on their cards; they pay to have their unsold seasonal cards quietly removed from the shelves; probably the other card makers follow suit. But boxed cards are a different story. They can be scooped up now for a song. Plus, gift-wrapping paper isn’t perishable, and a tube or two can stand in a corner of a closet while taking up hardly any space.

This post-holiday discount happens every year. It’s part of the natural business cycle. If you pay attention, you’ll see the pattern repeat itself time after time.

It’s not just a Christmas cycle. It’s all holidays where themed merchandise dominates the store shelves. It will happen again on Valentine’s Day. The week after, you’ll see the biggest discounts on any remaining Valentine’s Day merchandise. Then again when Easter rolls around. Eventually, Halloween. Then Thanksgiving. And then Christmas again.

So if you have a little storage space and want the cheapest possible prices for your Christmas 2022 shopping, start buying now.

Granted, many chocolates you buy now might not retain their freshness a year from now, but candy-coated chocolates should last. Snow globes bought now will work fine a year from now if handled carefully. Plus, those silly Santa hats (which I’ve never worn and never will wear) will be just as goofy come December 2022, and your head size won’t have changed.

This week or two after Christmas is the time for the steepest discounts on holiday-themed merchandise. And without the holiday-season crowds.

Arthur Vidro is one of the Eagle Times’ recurring financial columnists. His “EQMM Goes to College” appeared in the May/June 2021 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.