Ho, ho, hold up! Supermarkets have begun rolling out the MINCE PIES

As the rest of us happily embrace the Indian Summer which generally arrives the moment the first school bell rings in September, it seems supermarket bigwigs are on a totally different page.

In a move which has many of us holding on to our sunglasses for dear life, retailers in the UK have begun wheeling out festive treats lest we forget that the big day is just – wait for it – 15 weeks away.

Taking to Twitter to highlight the sheer lunacy of the decision, one member of the public wrote: "Yes, those are mincepiles. It's September 5th. Where's the Halloween stuff first?!"

What time of year is it? #Mincepies #nom pic.twitter.com/7TNxL7Atr6

— Nigel Buckton (@NigelBuckton) September 1, 2016

"It was all going well, then suddenly mincepies, " added another disgruntled shopper yesterday.

Speaking to the Metro, one Asda shopper said: "I couldn’t believe it – I saw Christmas mince pies on sale in Asda but the date on the box was two months before Christmas."

Nooooooooooo not yet. September has only just arrived!!!! #Christmas #MincePies pic.twitter.com/Zt9jJNg5ty

— Nick Dent (@Ozzyizak) September 4, 2016

"I thought it was a misprint but when I checked the other boxes on the shelf, they had the same date, October 26th 2016."

Thankfully for the retailers, not everyone is appalled by their decision to skip over Halloween and launch straight into Yuletide.

"Asda now selling mincepies…I'm going to pretend to be outrages but secretly I'm delighted and have bought three boxes."

They're prepared, we'll give them that much.