Costco made quick work of a few merchandising seasons this summer and began decking its aisles with holiday needs by mid-September.Pallets merchandising lighted holiday decorations from Koninklijke Phillips presented a glowing snowman and twinkling Christmas tree out of their boxes. General Electric Lighting and Northern International's Paradise Garden Lighting both topped case stacks with signs decorated with LED lights. Generic Christmas ornaments and private-label Kirkland Sinature wrapping paper were also available in the seasonal department. Despite the merchandising initiative, Costco did not begun seasonal marketing through other promotional channels.During the same time frame, channel rival Sam’s Club focused its efforts on more timely merchandising themes such as Halloween, football and breast cancer awareness. Stores did carry a Christmas-themed ribbon display that had a QR code linking shoppers to samsclub.com/holidaydecorating (although the site was not working as of Sept. 30), and began rolling out other seasonal merchandise by the end of the month.