November means Halloween at Sears

I arrived home from work a few days ago - November 12th to be exact - to find this catalogue staring up at me from the front porch. My first thought was: Sears sells Halloween props? Who knew? Not me. After my initial suprise, I was filled with admiration. The Sears people are marketing geniuses! Who would think to send out Halloween ads while there are still jack-o-lanterns withering on doorsteps? However, upon closer examination, I decided that perhaps genius wasn't the right word. It seems that if I wanted any of these props, I would have to have placed my order days ago. I held in my hands an expired 2008 catalogue.

Clearly, one of two things had happened here. Either someone at Sears confused Halloween with Christmas (their Christmas catalogue arrived in August!) or the rarely-seen phantom who delivers catalogues, flyers, newsletters and random pieces of junk mail to my doorstep had misplaced these in the weeks leading up to Halloween (busy planning his own haunt perhaps?) and then thought, better late than never. True. It's never too early to plan for 2009. As anyone at Sears can tell you.