海角大神

In perhaps the most egregious聽case of Christmas Creep ever recorded, Walmart is launching layaway - and the holiday shopping season - more than a week聽before Labor Day sales even begin.

W, the reigning heavyweight聽champion of聽聽and all things related to holiday retail,聽rolled out their plans for the 2015 holiday shopping season today. Yes,聽today.

Today's announcement聽kicks off the annual layaway program for holiday shoppers, the 8/28 start date giving shoppers 90 days instead of the usual 60 to pay off their layaway purchases by Black Friday.聽Purchases of $50 or more are eligible for layaway, but the minimum price of individual items聽comprising that purchase has been lowered to $10.

Of course, the layaway launch is perfectly timed to go hand in hand with聽Walmart's "first-ever" Toy Week,聽running from Friday 8/28 (yes, that's tomorrow) to Thursday 9/3, and you can't have something called "Toy Week" unless you also unveil 2015's聽聽holiday toys. The list includes the usual array of Barbie Dream Houses, Hot Wheels, Furreal pets and Frozen toys. (Yep, everyone is聽still into Frozen. Sorry about that, parents.)

We spot checked a few of the toys on Walmart's list and found that Amazon often has them listed at the same price. Additionally, keep in mind that since we're not quite to Black Friday season yet, it's likely we'll see better prices on nearly everything here sometime in the next three months. It's still a long way to the holidays.

You can check out the complete list here:聽

Immediately after Toy Week, there's "Force Friday" on 9/4, with midnight marking the in-store arrival of the聽merchandise for聽Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

"Outside of the holiday season, we could be looking at the biggest week of 2015 for toys and we're giving customers every reason to choose Walmart," said Anne Marie Kehoe, vice president of toys at Walmart. "We've made a tradition out of letting kids tell us which toys will be most popular during the holidays. Between their selections this year and the excitement around聽Star Wars, parents know exactly what will top kids' wish lists, and they can count on us for great prices."

Given the聽heavy emphasis on Star Wars in the聽, and the devotion of an entire day to it on Walmart's calendar, is anyone else surprised聽that there isn't one single Star Wars toy on the Chosen by Kids holiday toy list?

There's no news in here about Walmart's Black Friday plans, and we won't see the聽until mid-November, but we expect it to be pretty par for the course: staggered sales throughout聽the two weeks or so leading up to the big day which is quickly becoming a nonevent with so many retailers, including Walmart,聽launching their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving Day. (Expect that聽to get worse before it gets better.)