Black Friday, Cyber Monday, meet “Orange Tuesday” -- one retailer’s attempt to establish the Tuesday after Labor Day as the kickoff of the Halloween shopping season.

BuySeasons Inc., the New Berlin, Wis., company that owns and operates a stable of online costume and party supply websites, including buycostumes.com and CostumeExpress.com, didn’t just coin the term, it also filed an application to with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to protect its use on a host of items. They include, in part, “clothing and footwear, dress-up clothing, masks, wigs, costume props, costume and theatrical makeup, party supplies, party decorations [and] party favors.”

The company appears to be going all out in its attempt to make Orange Tuesday the new Black Friday, offering one-day Sept. 3 discounts of up to 50% on some costumes at BuyCostumes.com as well as door-buster deals dubbed “grave busters” (Is it just me or would “grave robbery” have been another way to go with this?)

Let’s set aside for the moment the strategic wisdom of trademarking a phrase you’re trying to get some pop culture traction with (HomeGoods tried that with “mom cave” back in 2011 and it still makes us chuckle), and address the more pressing question: Who is actually gearing up for the end of October’s spooky season three days into September?


According to the BuyCostumes.com Web traffic, a lot of people are; the company claims the number of visitors to the site nearly doubles “from August to the first week in September.”

When I made mention of Orange Tuesday (sorry, I mean Orange Tuesday™) on Twitter earlier today, Halloween’s retail creep into the earliest days of September -- trademarked or otherwise -- touched off a flurry of commentary, including an emphatic throwing down of the #notseasonallyappropriate hashtag gauntlet by my oh-so-strict-about-the-seasons sister-in-law.

So here’s the question: Is the second day of September (since Labor Day falls on the first Monday, that’d be the earliest possible date for Orange Tuesday) too early to start scaring things up for that All Hallow’s Eve bash at the end of October?

Or do you think it’s more than appropriate to start thinking about wearing that white sheet right after Labor Day?


Feel free to share your comments below. And if no one says so much as “Boo!” we’ll assume you won’t mind when the inevitable “Red Tuesday” Valentine’s Day promotions -- complete with “heart-buster” deals -- start in earnest right after Columbus Day.

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adam.tschorn@latimes.com