Although much of the national attention is — and will continue to be — focused on developments related to the Nov. 5 presidential election, the world beyond the political front is far from being in slumber mode.

For example, on the retail front, merchants are not sitting back, intent on waiting until after Halloween to make important decisions associated with the busy Christmas shopping season.

Many merchants already are knee deep in planning for the products with which their shelves will be stocked in the weeks leading up to Dec. 25.

Also, on their mind and capturing their daily attention is the health of the national, state and local economies, all of which will impact what sales and other holiday promotions they will offer in the weeks and months before us, as well as how many seasonal employees they will need to handle the anticipated holiday shopping rush.

Despite the big increase of people opting to shop online or by way of the home shopping television channels, the end-of-year holidays remain a busy and challenging time for brick-and-mortar retailers, usually requiring some amount of additional help to complement their regular staffing.

Those holidays also remain a crucial time.

For some stores and other entities, whether or not they have a successful — profitable — holiday experience will determine whether they still will be open for business at this time in 2025.

A Wall Street Journal article last November provided a projected holiday shopping picture that was troubling then and which hopefully will not be repeated this year.

Under the headline “Holiday hiring demand drops off,” the Journal reported that “the number of seasonal positions publicly advertised this fall (2023) fell to the lowest level in a decade, according to outplacement-services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.”

The Journal went on to report estimates compiled by the National Retail Federation that between 345,000 and 445,000 seasonal people would be hired “this” (2023) year, down as much as 40 percent from the recent high in 2021.

Many people will recall pre-2023, when finding enough individuals to stock shelves, fill boxes and deliver packages was difficult. Last year, finding enough workers was easier but the need for seasonal workers was not as great, as fears of a weakening labor market persisted.

One viewpoint expressed in last November’s Journal article was that the United States was not experiencing a labor-shortage problem anywhere in the nation at that time.

The National Retail Federation defines the holiday season as Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, meaning that by six days into November, the national attention will be shifting from politics to other issues, including the soon-to-be-upon-us holidays.

Even as soon as Nov. 6, many Americans already will be looking toward early announcements of Black Friday-related bargains and, beyond that, finalizing their gift-giving plans.

Hopefully, the national divisiveness that will have marked most of 2024, especially the several months right before the election, will begin to ease and Americans will become Americans again — people committed to one another rather than political enemies hellbent on undermining “the other side.”

Amid the current troubled mindset, then, there still are positive initiatives underway. And, during the final weeks of 2024, merchants here and beyond will have the power to be important players in what should be a national healing process.

It must be hoped that they will be successful in that endeavor.