No, not really, the holidays are still on as scheduled, but with all the doom and gloom reports about the economy; I am starting to think the Grinch may be running The Fed. Yet even with all this noise, retailers are reacting quickly to the economy and the ones who manage to go on offense early will be the most likely to succeed.

Believe it or not the holiday shopping season already began. While many retailers may not label it quite yet as holiday shopping, retailers are making a big push early with major discounts....take a look at an email I got last week from Jos A. Bank.

And rest assured this is not the only email I got today about upcoming sales.

It is not even just an online only phenomenon, even in-store retailers are trying to move customers into the holiday shopping mode quickly. For instance, being the last minute shopper I am, I went to Target one night last week to find a Halloween costume, only to find employees taking down most of the Halloween section and in its place a holiday wonderland appeared. This was 4 full days before Halloween, and I know I am not the only last minute shopper out there!

That said, retailers need to be aggressive this year, and those caught behind the curve may struggle.

Online retailers in particular, need to be able to adjust quickly and need to be in full control of their site. In a tough economy the opportunity cost of waiting a day for a simple change is too high. Merchandisers, marketers, and web developers need to be on their toes not only to react to competitors but more importantly to strike first with great content, product information, and most importantly promotions.