Summer doesn't officially end until September 22, but in some stores, fall is well underway.
It's not your imagination — fall items are appearing in stores earlier this year.
Dr. Audrey Guskey is a professor of marketing at Pittsburgh's Duquesne University. She says, "Retailers are doing it because they want more money. They realize the sooner we start spending the more we're actually going to spend. And some retailers such as Home Depot actually put out the Halloween, the skeletons and all that merchandise back in April."
Costco followed with Halloween decorations in late July.
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Retailers have good reason to get consumers in the Halloween mood early.
Guskey says it's a $12-billion payday for retailers, coming behind Christmas and back-to-school spending.
She says "Halloween has become an adult holiday now. So not just the kids going door to door getting candy."
And then there's the pumpkin spice lattes. Starbucks introduced the drink back in 2003, and the company says it remains its most popular seasonal beverage.
The lattes are available now, with stores encouraging customers to "Bring the Fall Feels Home" no matter how hot the weather is.
Guskey says "There are people who love the pumpkin latte and all the different fall drinks and so they don't care if it's 100 degrees out there."
Starbucks isn't alone in the pumpkin spice trend. Krispy Crème acknowledged it's only August but brought back a pumpkin spice cake donut and pumpkin spice lattes on the 12.
So even if there's some consumer pushback on jump-starting fall, there's enough money in it for retailers to keep going all out on the fall creep.
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