Halloween Candy?

I was at the grocery store today and saw bins near the front entrance with bags of Halloween candy on sale (2 bags for $6). Halloween candy...in August. When is the Christmas stuff going on display? In September? Crazy. I don't want to think about Halloween in August and I'm sure the school kids hate seeing "Back to School" stuff in July while they're still on summer vacation. No wonder sales are down. These marketing people need to realize pushing specialized sales (like holiday sales) so far ahead of the actual holiday probably doesn't help. I suspect there's a large contingent of people, like myself, who resent that kind of thing. I've been reading about the problems Macy's stores have been having and that a lot of stores are scheduled to close. I love Macy's. They make a brand of jeans that I like and I've been a steady customer for a while now. However, the stores are often a mess when I go in and sometimes it's hard to find an actual register open when I'm ready to check out. I'll continue to be a customer, but they could do better on the customer service side. But department stores like Macy's have a bigger problem. I think a lot of retail businesses are suffering because a lot of companies don't require their employees to dress for work anymore. This change has removed an entire segment of shoppers and has really hurt department stores like Macy's. My day job dropped its dress code a few years ago so that meant I didn't need to buy "work" clothes anymore. Also, the kids today don't seem to be interested in shopping for clothes and when they do, they're not going to department stores like Macy's for those purchases.

I did a blog post yesterday about the Terracotta Warriors exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago and I wanted to share another picture from the display.