What Is Going On?

Yesterday I walked past a shop and it had a sign in the window saying, 'January Sale Now On.'  Is it just me, or aren't January sales actually supposed to be in JANUARY.  Why not just put 'sale now on.'  It must be a real comfort to the people who've already done their christmas shopping, to know that everything they've already bought is now half price.  I certainly weren't amused.  What happened to good old-fashioned christmas spirit?  Have times become so bad, that we have to put ourselves in debt, just to make EVERYONE ELSE happy?  What happened to, 'it's the thought that counts.'  These days it seems that it only counts if you thought of buying them an iphone, or something else pointlessly expensive.  Now the shops are moving their sales to before christmas, just to make us spend that little bit more.  I think that it's time we had a little bit more tradition, and a little less commercialism.  It's also about time that someone reminded the retail industry that they didn't invent christmas, and it's not there just for them to make huge profits.