We are seeing a stronger and or earlier Easter than last year. It is hard to say whether the season overall will beat last year right now because the only time to properly assess the season is at the end. Card, gift and egg sales are all performing well – gifts especially. Eggs kicked in this week, it was like someone said that it’s okay to buy Easter eggs now and shoppers came from everywhere. In a couple of our stores the sales kick was so strong that made arrangements for more stock.
We went out early with Easter, right after Valentine’s Day. Going early works well for us – we already have a good range of Mother’s Day stock out and it’s selling.
Our view on seasons is that the sooner we position ourselves as being strong in a season the better.