Why You Should Never Shop at a Hudson Valley Store in August

Unless you really want to punish yourself, you should never step foot in a Hudson Valley store during the month of August.

I'm not sure of the reason, but retailers appear to do everything they can to aggravate customers during the month of August. It happens every year and quite frankly, I'm sick of it.

Here in the Hudson Valley, we spend the entire winter dreaming of summer. We all suffer through those long, cold months just so we can enjoy all of the beauty of the Hudson Valley in Spring and Summer. When they finally arrive, I love to savor every single moment. But that's hard to do when everywhere you look people appear to be out to ruin your good time.

Every year, like clockwork, when the calendar turns to August local businesses seem to begin their campaign to make everyone feel miserable. I'm not sure if it's because they're angry that they have to work during the summer or if they just hate all of us, but it's an aggressive campaign aimed at ruining the entire month.

To be clear, August is summertime. The weather on Thursday is forecast to reach 100 degrees. People should be enjoying the outdoors, swimming, barbecuing and doing summer things. However, you wouldn't know that if you went shopping at any of our local stores.

Here are five actual examples of how Hudson Valley retailers are doing their best to ruin everyone's summer right now by selling items and marketing products that have no place on anyone's summer shopping lists.