I Don’t Need Peeps In February
It’s currently mid-February, and the Williamsburg Duane Reade has already begun dollying up its store with Easter holiday merchandise. Perhaps if Duane Reade was a quirky neighbor on my block known for putting up decorations two months too early, I’d be sympathetic. But Duane Reade is not my neighbor; it’s a company, and it doesn’t give two shits about springtime or holiday spirit. Duane Reade moves up its merchandizing schedule earlier each year because its profitable. So when I see chocolate bunnies, basket grass, and plastic eggs in the height of winter, I’m not charmed; I’m revolted.
Easter this year is not until April 20. That’s nine weeks away. Before I’d stepped into Duane Reade, I wasn’t thinking about Easter. I was thinking about snow and wind and leap years, whether or not I might have Covid. But now Easter is top of mind, dammit. And that is exactly why Duane Reade does it—to generate sales during the off-season by creating a false sense of urgency. Buy your Easter basket in February (they might sell out!), then grab your peeps in March, and use the month of April to assemble all goodies purchased. Companies also move up their merchandizing schedules to recoup falling sales. Pumpkin spice lattes, for instance, saw their earliest launch ever last August only because Starbucks was under pressure by its investors to make changes.
It all feels quite blurred and depressing at the moment, as we grow increasingly reliant on marketing cues for when to kick off which seasons or holidays and how. It’s a mistake trying to see humanity in companies like Duane Reade or Starbucks, believing they would ever give the people what they wanted because people demanded it or because it made people happy. It’s a mistake for us to think that we asked for any of it. (Yes! Pastel-drenched flora and fauna in February! Yes! Pumpkin bevies on the beach!) No, the reality is these companies are foisting their corporate C.R.E.A.M. interests on consumers, administering massive marketing budgets to funnel and manipulate our spending choices. They care about one thing, that’s the dollar, dollar bill, y'all.