About non-essential shops being open on boxing day

[NayrusWisdom7]

Just that I am sick and tired of christmas being ruined every year by having to work Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. The sales may be all well and good but someone has to give up their day to make it happen! I think if stores are to be open at all on boxing day they should be subject to sunday trading hours of 1-6 only. I'm sure fellow retail workers will agree.. Or maybe I'm just bitter?

[meandyouohyeah]

Clearly my manager is in the wrong job too. I better tell him to stop running his one star restaurant with one of the biggest waiting lists in London, he's doing it wrong.

[MrsItsNoworNotatAll]

A lot of folk may well be indifferent to Christmas but there are also loads who love it but have to give up a day to work so other selfish folk can have the day they want.

Working on Christmas day and Boxing day in retail isn't always voluntary. You either work it or lose money you can ill afford too.

[meandyouohyeah]

real people with real problems, had shit years, had bereavements, upsets, loses, some good times thrown in, health problems etc

Oh and the only solution to that is to go out on xmas day. Didn't understand, thanks for clarifying.

As you've said on this thread multiple times ' it's one fucking day' so why don't they pick another?

[WhyTheFace]

You seem so very, very angry mean

Who hurt you?

[DastardlyDachshund]

Are pub/restaurant meals really that much better quality than a joint in a tin with a few pre-prepared potatoes and some microwavable steamed veg? My grandmother is extremely frail and weak (not to mention blind in one eye and sight not great in the other). She still manages to sort out a meal for her and her son who lives with her (believe me he does no work in the cooking department). As for those who are lonely, suffered a bereavement etc, how many of those people are on here? How many people truly have NO ONE else to talk to for two days? If you know people like this be they neighbours or acquaintances then since you are so benevolent then feel free to give up some of your time to keep them company or give them a call to see how they are.

Lweji just because you didn't grow up with boxing day, doesn't mean others should give up theirs so you can shop or whatever 24 hours sooner. If you wan't to work that is your prerogative no one is arguing that. The point is others actually would prefer not to work on a public holiday that has been celebrated for many years in this country. If I lived in USA I wouldn't get pissy because the shops closed for thanksgiving because as a Brit I don't celebrate it. I would know it is coming, plan to not need to go to the shops and enjoy the day off.

[lemisscared]

dastardly - i was the poster who didn't need to or didn't want to go out. we didn't in the end

[Nightboattocairo]

Jesus, you're a delight, aren't you, mean - actually, it's prompted me to book to go out for Christmas dinner next year, just tell me where you are & I'll avoid it. Like the plague...

Btw, not me who's been saying it's only a fucking day, but if it helps you're cause, I'll indulge you.

[mumeeee]

We eat out as a family on Christmas day as it means we can have quality family time without anyone being tied to the Kitchen. I'm a support worker for a lady with learning disabilities and am at work today. Started at 3pm today and won't finish untill 3pm tomorrow. This year I've had Christmas Eve and Christmas day off but hsve worked them other years.

[expatinscotland]

Well, DH and I dined out on Christmas Day, 2011. I'll never forget it! Why? Our DD1, then 8, was in hospital. In the onco unit in fact, in isolation. She was provided with a hospital dinner but there was no food provided for parents. My parents travelled from the US to be with her, and offered us a nice meal out as a gift, after having watched her go through her first round of chemo (they swapped out eating a Chinese takeaway outside her room as she couldn't abide strong smells). She was being treated at the closest hospital that could treat children with cancer, which is 2 hours from our home in good weather so we couldn't go and make dinner.

How selfish of us, to go out for food, and how lovely that the staff thought we were dickheads who couldn't be arsed to cook our own fucking dinner.

We never had cause to go out to dinner on Christmas again after that because she died in July, 2012.

There are some real cunts in this world.

[Lweji]

Dastardly, that was not my point.
If the OP works other bank holidays, why not also Boxing day, because it's not a religious holiday?
It's not Christmas, it's just the day after and hardly comparable to Thanksgiving.

[DastardlyDachshund]

lemisscared. Glad you managed to enjoy the day with your family instead. It's a shame more people can't simply do this instead of eroding another day where people can enjoy a get together with people they care about or simply enjoy a day off of work if they don't care about the day itself.

meandyouohyeah You are clearly being unreasonable. All you need to do is suddenly not give a shit about spending time with your family and friends. Or, failing that you could try asking the fairies for a dream job to be handed to you which gives you everything you want . In all seriousness I don't think you are overreacting at all and if I know someone has to do something against their will for others benefit then they only have my sympathy.

[meandyouohyeah]

It wouldn't surprise me if you went out on xmas day night as you are obviously a very selfish person who doesn't give a damn about the slaves serving you, peasants don't have family they'd like to spend Christmas with do they?

I very much doubt you would ever visit my venue so don't worry your head about that one.

[Lweji]

Also, I had holidays booked today (not in the UK in the last few years) and certainly didn't go shopping anyway, nor used to. I hate the first day of sales and never liked the post-Christmas shopping rush.

[Nightboattocairo]

It's ok darling, I live in notting hill & I dont think I've ever seen a Harvester there....

Pour yourself a Baileys & calm down. It's Boxing Day. Chill your beans!

[expatinscotland]

There you go, we were slavers now, for going out to a nice restaurant on Christmas day. We thanked them so much for the lovely meal, explaining how much it meant to us and leaving a big tip but they thought we were dickheads forcing them to work.

[Nightboattocairo]

Don't pay any attention expat - mean needs to cool her jets.

And perhaps go on a 'How to make the customer feel special spending their hard earned cash which actually pays your mortgage' course.

[meandyouohyeah]

All you need to do is suddenly not give a shit about spending time with your family and friends. Or, failing that you could try asking the fairies for a dream job to be handed to you which gives you everything you want

It's all so obvious now dastardly! Why didn't I think of this before

[Lweji]

If shops or restaurants, are open, then fair enough for customers to show up if they want to.
Why not get a job in something that never opens on Bank Holidays?

Often I have to teach until 8pm, which means I only get home after 9:30 pm. I don't think of my students as slavers.

[lemisscared]

in all honesty i blame the employers rather than the consumers. i remember a time when nothing was open on a sunday -people survived.

restaurants im on the fence about - can see a real demand for this service for many reasons but retailers?

they don't need to open and its pure greed. it is retailers that have eroded the Christmas break by peddling their crap at 5am on boxing day.

[meandyouohyeah]

Oh, now it's I pay your wages! Wondered how long that would be. Please do tell me night in which exclusive street of NH do you live? I would like to come around and personally worship the ground you walk on for providing me with a living.

[Celticlass2]

Mean you're starting to sound hysterical now. Lots of people eat out/ shop, go the the cinema whatever over the Christmas period.
They do it for all sorts of reasons, and because they can.
Look for another job if it bothers you so much having to work.

[DastardlyDachshund]

There are some real cunts in this world. Agreed expatinscotland, and a lot of them go out unnecessarily and inconvenience others by their actions. I am very sorry about your DD and can't imagine what you must have been feeling. However surely you can see that situations such as those are uncommon (particularly at that time of year) and I am sure you can appreciate the desire to be with loved ones at this time? Surely you can empathise with others who want to spend time with their families but can't because they have to work. There will always be mitigating circumstances in which people feel they have the right to do whatever they want regardless of anything else. Doesn't make it right for the people who have to suffer the consequences. If pubs/restaurants/shops opened with voluntary staff then you'd still have had somewhere to eat on that sad day, however that choice wouldn't have negatively affected others.

And you missed my point Lweji. Businesses are opening now for Boxing day because people can't bear to wait until the 27th to go shopping. Say we forget all about Boxing day, when do the people who have to work Christmas day in either hospitality/nursing/caring get to see their families? And once Boxing day is eroded out of the year completely, how long until the Next Christmas day sales start?

[ihatethecold]

Jeez mean. Your manager sounds like a right arse. Just like you!

[Nightboattocairo]

That can be arranged, mean

[Andrewofgg]

Dastardly A lot of families choose to get together on CD - not an invitation from one nuclear family to others, but nuclear families meeting as an extended family. And they can only do that in a restaurant. Of course they can only do it at all because they are not in essential services or hospitality, or if they are then because they worked last CD and will probably worked next, but there it is, it's a chance for them to meet, and when you go into the hospitality business you accept that some years you will be working CD so that they can meet. Them's the breaks.

As for retail on Boxing Day: much retail is now part of hospitality too.