Frequency, scarcity, duration, and why I hate Christmas

People of a certain age probably remember this event from grade school – being gathered together to watch the Olympics on television. I’ve talked to other Gen-Xers who remember this, and I’m sure older generations probably do as well. Why was this done? Because the Olympics only happened every four years, and it was a big deal. They were infrequent, and news about the Olympics was relatively scarce. They also were a short blip in time – a couple weeks every four years.

I know my daughter has never been gathered into a room at her school to watch the Olympics on TV. Why? Because with the new format of the summer games alternating with the winter games, we have an Olympics every two years, so they’re relatively more frequent. Add to that the prevalence of Olympic news because of increased channel availability and increased frequency, and they’re simply not a big deal anymore to the consumer.

In a seemingly unrelated activity, I was reading Craig’s List the other day, looking for a particular motorcycle, and came across an early ’70s Honda CB750 offered for the price of $7,000. The bike had been beautifully restored, yet had been sitting on Craig’s List, unsold, for six months. Why? Because while the motorcycle may have been beautifully restored and possibly at a cost approaching the $7,000 mark, Honda made 63,500 third-generation CB750s. They’re not hard to come by. No scarcity = lower price.

I mentioned the Olympics being a short blip in time – a couple weeks every four years, back in the day. They were of short duration, which, combined with their quadrennial appearance, made them relatively scarce, thus, more valuable.

So what does this have to do with me hating Christmas? It’s a marketing problem. Retailers want to extend the season so they can make more money, thus increasing the duration/decreasing the scarcity. Some of my local retailers start marketing Christmas stuff right after Halloween, which is way too soon. Some are starting to see the backlash from trying to extend Black Friday into Thanksgiving, which means I’m not the only one frustrated with the extended duration of the season.

Also, extending the duration makes it seems like it happens more often. By starting on November first, I’ve essentially only got 9 months from the end of one Christmas season to another, increasing its perceived frequency, thus decreasing it’s scarcity – lowering it’s perceived value.

Understand this: I don’t really hate Christmas. I hate that my profession has taken the “special” out of the season by making it seem too often, less scarce, and too long.