'Tis the season?

You know, I get that Target and Costco have had Christmas merchandise out for at least a month. Because that’s the way they roll.

But I was in Neiman-Marcus at Stanford Shopping Center last week, and look:

A friend of mine assured me that “They do that for the tourists, because only tourists shop at Stanford Mall.” Which didn’t entirely make sense, as not only was I there in search of something particular, but there was a queue of fanboys about halfway down the mall waiting for the iPhone 6s at the Apple Store.

So I have no explanation and I see no excuse for this sort of pushing the season from N-M. But there it is.