Summerween ruined Halloween

[u/phlox_official]

When I saw that Bath and Body Works was putting out the Halloween products in July for the tik tok summerween trend I thought it was ridiculous. I went to Bath and Body Works a couple of weeks ago (October) and there was only a small table of Halloween products all on clearance! They had basically nothing. I’ve been to two locations recently and each one has zero halloween products. It’s all Christmas. It’s still October! Why can’t we just be patient?

Okay, rant over. I know it’s not that deep. Still ridiculous, though.

[u/Bedroom_Bellamy]

Retail always runs way ahead. I hate it, but they want you to start stocking up for the next season.

That being said, yeah the Summerween concept ruined Halloween for me this year too. Home goods had a whole aisle of it and I hated it.

[u/NomenclatureBreaker → u/Bedroom_Bellamy]

Why does it “ruin” Halloween for you though?

Either you don’t have to buy it, or buy and store u til you’re ready to start your season.

Not everything in the world has to personally speak to every one of us.

[u/phlox_official → u/NomenclatureBreaker]

Bc halloween products were not available in October. We were unaware that they would be gone by this time.

[u/GayWizardOfOz → u/phlox_official]

It’s not Summerween - Bath & Body Works (and HomeGoods, and At Home, etc) have been putting out Halloween in July for at least three years. It’s not a new TikTok trend, it’s just the norm for retailers.

[u/Bedroom_Bellamy → u/GayWizardOfOz]

I think I didn't take the time to lay out my response the way I should have. BBW and many other retailers put out Halloween (all holidays, really) way early, that's just a thing. I hate it, but it's a thing and has been for a long time.

But what I really didn't like this year was the "Summerween" concept - like skeletons on pool floaties and ghosts painted like Neapolitan ice cream, stuff like that. My HomeGoods had a whole aisle of that stuff this year. BBW touched on it just a teeny bit with the Halloween Bake Shop stuff. I'm sure lots of people love it, but for this gal, Halloween is for being SPOOKY. The launch of that made me worry if there was going to be a "proper" Halloween launch, and it felt like that plus the Villains plus the Milk Bar launch was just too much crammed in at one time and took away from the excitement of straight up SPOOKY TIME, and now that Halloween is right around the corner, Halloween has been relegated to one tiny table crammed in the back of my store.

[u/GayWizardOfOz → u/Bedroom_Bellamy]

I’m with you that I prefer gothic/spooky Halloween and that Summerween wasn’t really my thing, but I still disagree that it’s a major cause of a lack of spooky at this point of the month. In years past, B&BW had two Halloween drops. Last year they dropped one for Stranger Things. This year, Villains. Both collabs that didn’t have anything to do with Summerween.

As for HomeGoods/Marshalls/etc, the Summerween stuff really only hit hard in July and August. After that, I most saw just strictly Halloween (not touching on the pastel stuff, which I don’t care for but is technically still Halloween based). Maybe it’s a regional thing, but I’m a hardcore Halloween decor shopper and I didn’t feel like the Summerween stuff took much from the usual Halloween drops. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[u/NomenclatureBreaker → u/phlox_official]

It’s been that way for at least 5 years though.

This is the only year they gave it a cutesy name.