What bothers me about "shopping seasons" is that they are askew from what I'll call "use seasons". Well, I guess that's not much if any different from the Halloween-stuff-in-early September phenomenon.

But if you need (in the US) a swimming suit in early August, when it's about to be really hot, you can't find one; the swimming-suit-sale season has passed. Perish forbid that you should look for a short-sleeved dress shirt at or after the middle of July.

Dave Oesterreich