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<p>NEW YORK (AP) &#8212; Target says customers want the store to pause the &#8220;Christmas creep.&#8221; It says it wants to be more in tune with customers&#8217; mindset, so it plans to ease in holiday promotions this year while better recognizing Thanksgiving.</p><p>The retailer&#8217;s holiday plans also include a new e-gift service, adding kiosks that focus on impulse presents mainly under $15, and launching a wallet feature to its app. It&#8217;s also offering more weekend deals since shoppers do more holiday buying then.</p><p>While all retailers need to worry about online growth and the expansion of Amazon, Target is spending $7 billion over three years to remodel old stores, open small ones in cities and college towns, and offer faster delivery for online orders. It&#8217;s also been refreshing its store brands and trying to be more convenient to shoppers. Eight of Target&#8217;s new brands will be available for the first time this holiday season.</p><p>The company is expanding its marketing focus and increasing its holiday marketing budget compared to a year ago.</p><p>For November, Target will keep Thanksgiving signs and displays at the entrances, and its marketing will play up Thanksgiving meal preparation and entertaining for shoppers.</p><p>&#8220;They want us to pause and be really intentional and recognize Thanksgiving,&#8221; said Rick Gomez, Target&#8217;s chief marketing officer. &#8220;What they don&#8217;t want us to do is go right into Christmas. So we are going to respect that.&#8221;</p><p>As it eases into the later holidays, the company isn&#8217;t repeating the &#8220;Ten Days of Deals&#8221; strategy, which it had for two seasons in a row. Instead, it&#8217;s increasing weekend deals starting Nov. 11. Gomez says customers are shopping on the weekend twice as much as they are during weekdays.</p><style>
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Target: Customers want store to pause the ‘Christmas creep’