Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Hold the roasted chestnuts and the jingling silver bells. It's not Christmas time in the city, at least not at Shoppers Drug Mart.

Christmas music in the store, which started earlier this month, has been put on pause until mid-November due to recent complaints from customers that the tunes were being rolled out a tad early.

As of Friday night, the Shoppers sound system transitioned into contemporary, non-seasonal music.

Shoppers spokesperson Tammy Smitham said the change is affecting all franchise locations because the music is controlled centrally in Toronto. Smitham said the store typically starts the Christmas-themed music as retailers transition out of Halloween. This year, the online community was more vocal about what they can and cannot stand when it comes to Frosty the Snowman and Santa coming to town.

"What's different about this year is with new tools like Facebook, we're able to get customer feedback real-time," she said Monday.

"So we heard from them that they felt it was a little early, so the decision was made to delay the music until later on in the month."

Hear them they did. An hour after Shoppers posted a comment on its Facebook page stating Christmas music would be delayed until further notice, thousands of comments - ranging in emotion from relief to utter distress - were posted. As of Monday afternoon, there were more than 7,300 comments. Phone calls to Shoppers management in Yellowknife were not returned by press time.

"(The Christmas music) will still be there," Smitham said. "It's just going to be later on in the month."

That Christmas music schedule seems to be on par with other retailers in the city. Linda Schmidt, office manger of Home Hardware, said her store usually puts on Christmas music later this month.

"We don't do it this early," said Schmidt.

Ben Walker, general manager of Yellowknife Co-op, said the tunes are turned on when the employees decorate the store around the third week of November.

"You have to remember that we're here all the time, so if you think (customers are) sick of it," he joked.

Walker said even with Christmas music playing at the end of November, he still gets formal complaints.

"I think they'd like to see it on the 24th of December," he said.

Even though the music is held back a bit, when specialty food comes in for the holiday season, Walker said it gets put right on the shelf. Fruit cakes were put out last Friday.

The City of Yellowknife hails in the Christmas season with the Santa Claus Parade, which falls on Nov. 17 this year and will start at 6 p.m. It's always been held in November, according to Nalini Naidoo, spokesperson for the city. It used to be held in the last week of November but temperatures were always between -25 C and -35 C. The city decided to host it a bit earlier in the hope that the temperatures would co-operate.

"It has been on the average between -15 C to -20 C. There have been some years where it has been extremely cold, but more often than not we have enjoyed mid-teen temperatures and more participants in the parade," Naidoo stated via e-mail. When do you think stores should start playing Christmas music? Brittany Brasseur 0711sho51 "The earlier the better. I think earlier is good to play Christmas music." Brett Osmond 0711sho53 "Give it one month before Christmas, Nov. 25." Christa Domchek 0711sho52 "Definitely December." Denzil Zakaapi 0711sho54 "The last week of November. Around the 20th. It's too soon now."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.