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Why stores start selling Christmas stuff in September | CNN Business

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Why stores start selling Christmas stuff in September | CNN Business


New York
CNN Enterprise
 — 

You might not be anyplace near prepared for the vacations — however retail chains definitely are.

Christmas bushes are already on gross sales flooring at Costco and Lowe’s, Walmart’s year-end vacation gross sales begin October 1 and Goal

(TGT) is providing its “earliest entry ever” to vacation offers starting October 6. Amazon

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(AMZN) is internet hosting a brand new “Prime Day” gross sales occasion on October 11 and 12.

Vacation creep is nothing new, as annually retailers begin the Christmas season earlier and earlier. However has it gotten out of hand? Ought to shoppers be flooded with vacation music, shows and commercials in October — a month generally related to the World Sequence, apple selecting and Halloween?

“It’s inappropriate to the buyer to be pushing December vacation buying in September and October,” stated David Katz, the chief advertising and marketing officer at Randa Attire & Equipment, which makes Levi’s, Tommy Hilfiger and different manufacturers.

Retailers have many causes to jumpstart the vacations, their most necessary stretch of the yr. Some shops make as much as half of their yearly gross sales through the vacation interval. A weak vacation season can show ruinous.

Consumers reply to emotional and behavioral cues from shops, and beginning vacation themes early can tee shoppers as much as begin shopping for items.

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“Christmas music and aesthetics and surroundings impacts their buy habits. It’d give shoppers a possibility to indulge a bit of bit extra and spend,” stated Charles Lindsey, an affiliate professor of promoting on the College at Buffalo.

And this yr, there are new incentives for vacation creep.

Increased costs are factoring into buying selections this yr, and these early promotional offers permit customers to stretch their budgets over an extended time period, stated Danielle Inman, a spokesperson for the Nationwide Retail Federation. Working example: greater than half of shoppers begin researching and planning for vacation purchasing in October, in keeping with Walmart.

Final yr, retailers inspired clients to purchase early to make sure they might get what they have been in search of and keep away from potential transport delays. This yr, retailers critically misjudged what’s in demand and are sitting on an excessive amount of informal clothes, dwelling items and different non-essentials. They’re providing reductions early partially to clear cabinets and unencumber money to herald new items for 2023.

However there are dangers to dragging out vacation offers for too lengthy. Shops use promotions to persuade customers to purchase immediately or threat dropping out. An October promotion loses its energy if customers imagine they will nonetheless discover the identical stuff on sale in December or January.

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“If I’m going to have a four-month vacation season, I’m not as pushed to purchase now,” Katz stated. “You lose the sense of urgency and immediacy.”

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Read the Letter to the Inspectors General

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Read the Letter to the Inspectors General

Your investigation of these allegations is consistent with the IG’s mission to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in federal agencies, and can help determine if politically connected crypto interests are undermining our national security. As Congress considers legislation on the market structure for digital assets, we must ensure that cryptocurrencies like USD1 are not providing the President and senior officials with the ability to line their pockets at the expense of the public interest.

The following facts have been reported in multiple outlets regarding Mr. Witkoff:

• Mr. Witkoff’s son Zach Witkoff is the CEO of World Liberty Financial (WLF), which the President’s family owns a majority stake in.³
• Beginning in January, one of Sheikh Tahnoon’s employees, Fiacc Larkin, joined WLF as the “chief strategic advisor” while continuing to work at G42, an AI investment firm owned by Sheikh Tahnoon that, according to the U.S. intelligence community, works closely with Chinese military companies.4



On May 1, 2025, Zach Witkoff announced that MGX, a state-owned investment firm controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon, had agreed to use a WLF-issued stablecoin, USD1, to make a $2 billion investment in Binance. As a result of this deal, WLF stands to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in transaction fees from MGX, and more from the returns on any investments it makes with the $2 billion deposit.³
As of August, Mr. Witkoff maintained a financial interest in WLF and thus stands to personally benefit from his son’s business dealings with the UAE.6 Nevertheless, he did not recuse himself from deliberations regarding the UAE, which may violate federal ethics law.

The following facts have been reported about Mr. Sacks:







He is a special government employee who continues to serve as a “general partner” at his venture capital fund, Craft Ventures.

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The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, an Emirati sovereign wealth fund controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon, was an early investor in Craft Ventures and continues to hold an investment in the fund.
In addition, Craft Ventures is invested in BitGo, which has partnered with WLF to provide the technical infrastructure for USD1. If BitGo’s valuation grows, based on the UAE’s investment into USD1, Mr. Sacks and his firm stand to benefit.

3 Yahoo Finance, “Trump family reportedly has a 60% stake in the World Liberty Financial,” Anand Sinha, March 31, 2025,
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-family-reportedly-60-stake-172742661.html.
4 New York Times, “Inside U.S. Efforts to Untangle an A.I. Giant’s Ties to China,” Mark Mazzetti and Edward
Wong, Nov. 27, 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/11/27/us/politics/ai-us-uae-china-security-g42.html.
5 New York Times, “At a Dubai Conference, Trump’s Conflicts Take Center Stage,” David Yaffe-Bellany, May 1, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/politics/trump-cryptocurrency-usd1-dubai-conference-

announcement.html.

6U.S Office of Government Ethics, Form 278e for Steven C. Witkoff, August 13, 2025, p. 23, https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/090d0de07e1d2fdf/bbf02867-full.pdf.

18 U.S.C. § 208.

8 White House, “Limited Waiver Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 208(b)(1) Regarding A.I. Assets,” June 2025,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/David-Sacks.pdf.

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Farage refuses to criticise Trump over paracetamol despite health experts dismissing autism claims

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Farage refuses to criticise Trump over paracetamol despite health experts dismissing autism claims

Nigel Farage has refused to criticise Donald Trump’s claims that paracetamol, sold in the US as Tylenol, could cause autism, insisting “science is never settled” and he would never “side with” medical experts.

The Reform UK leader said he had “no idea” if the US president was right to tell pregnant women to avoid taking acetaminophen, also known as Tylenol and paracetamol, and suggesting that those who could not “tough it out” should limit their intake.

Scientists and global health agencies including the World Health Organization have strongly dismissed Trump’s false claims, calling them misguided and saying the evidence linking paracetamol use in pregnancy and autism was “inconsistent”.

The UK’s health secretary, Wes Streeting, told the British public they should not “pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine”, adding: “I trust doctors over President Trump frankly, on this.”

But in a wide-ranging interview with LBC’s Nick Ferrari, Farage was asked directly if Trump was right to share those unproven claims. He said: “I have no idea, I’ve no idea. You know we were told thalidomide was a very safe drug and it wasn’t. Who knows Nick, I don’t know.

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“He [Trump] has a particular thing about autism. I think because there’s been some in his family, he feels it very personally. I’ve no idea.”

When Farage was asked if he would side with medical experts who say it is dangerous to make the link, he added: “I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t. When it comes to science, I don’t side with anybody, right? You know? I don’t side with anybody, because science is never settled. We should remember that.”

Yet when challenged over whether it was irresponsible for Trump to make such an unproven claim, Farage said: “That’s an opinion he’s [Trump’s] got. It’s not one that I necessarily share.”

Farage’s refusal to condemn Trump’s claims comes weeks after a controversial doctor, Aseem Malhotra, was given top billing at Reform UK’s party conference and used his main-stage speech to claim the Covid vaccine caused cancer in the royal family. Malhotra is an adviser to Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy.

In the same interview, Farage said Trump was “right to say” that sharia law “is an issue in London”.

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“Never take what he [Trump] says literally, ever on anything. But always take everything he says seriously,” Farage said, adding: Trump “has a point.”

“So is he right to say that sharia is an issue in London? Yes. Is it an overwhelming issue at this stage? No. Has the mayor of London directly linked himself to it? No.”

Labour MPs have urged Keir Starmer to reprimand Trump’s administration after the US president falsely claimed in a speech to the United Nations: “I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed.

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“Now they want to go to sharia law. But you are in a different country, you can’t do that.”

Trump has been publicly attacking the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, since 2015 when the Labour politician criticised Trump, the then presidential candidate, for suggesting that Muslims should be banned from travelling to the US.

A spokesperson for Khan said: “We are not going to dignify his appalling and bigoted comments with a response. London is the greatest city in the world, safer than major US cities and we’re delighted to welcome the record number of US citizens moving here.”

During the LBC phone-in, Farage also said Reform’s plan to ban anyone who was not a UK citizen from claiming benefits would not apply to Ukrainians and Hongkongers.

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“No, because they come for different reasons,” Farage said, adding those who had lived in the UK on indefinite leave to remain and had not worked or paid into the system would be told their benefits would be cut.

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Alphabet market value exceeds $3tn

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Alphabet market value exceeds tn

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Alphabet’s market capitalisation surged above $3tn for the first time on Monday on the back of a sharp rally for the search giant’s shares over the past few weeks.

Shares in Google’s parent company have climbed more than 30 per cent to a record high of $252 since the group posted double-digit growth in revenue and profit in quarterly results out in late July.

The rally means Alphabet joins Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple as the only US companies valued above $3tn. Chipmaker Nvidia in July became the first company to hit a $4tn market value.

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