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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wish there was some way to ban shops from starting their sales on Boxing Day

231 replies

Daisysbear · 08/12/2015 13:39

Yet again, unfortunate shop staff will have to turn up for work at crack of dawn on boxing day to deal with the throngs crowding in for the sales.

Years ago, it was just understood that the shops stayed closed for a couple of days after Christmas. Customers survived forty eight hours away from retail therapy, staff got a proper Christmas break, and we were all forced off the shopping treadmill for a couple of days.

AIBU to wish it was mandatory for all shops (except small corner shops etc selling essentials) to stay closed for at least one day after Christmas to stop all the frenzied buying.

ps I know this wouldn't really work in an increasingly multi-cultural and secular society, but it would just be nice if it could.

OP posts:
TheBunnyOfDoom · 08/12/2015 14:58

But why should shop workers have to give up their bank holidays every year so people can buy cheap jeans? They don't get a choice! Supermarkets and clothes shops aren't vital services - the country won't shut down if people can't use them for 48 hours once a year Hmm

hollinhurst84 · 08/12/2015 15:04

Neither are pubs or restaurants I guess

angelos02 · 08/12/2015 15:07

hollinhurst I agree. People should be able to manage without shopping and going to the pub for a few days over Christmas.

hollinhurst84 · 08/12/2015 15:11

Every job I've worked I have done Christmas
Pubs, restaurants, even billing for contract mobile phones was required to work Christmas Day - and we were busy! That wasn't repairs or anything, purely billing queries on contracts

angelos02 · 08/12/2015 15:13

It is quite sad that people have nothing better to do on Boxing Day than shop or sort out mobile phone bills.

LaurieMarlow · 08/12/2015 15:14

There are a lot of things businesses should change. IF their remit was to support family life and family time.

But their remit is to maximize profits. Opening on boxing day is therefore a no brainer.

Original poster
Daisysbear · 08/12/2015 15:22

It's such a shame though Laurie. All of the shops re-opening on Boxing Day changes the whole tone of Christmas a bit. It used to be this quiet, quiet lull for a few days with everyone kind of withdrawing from the mainstream hum drum for a little while. Nowadays, Christmas has lost a bit of that magic, because everyone is just charging back out to the shops before they've even digested their Christmas dinner.

OP posts:
Letustryagain · 08/12/2015 15:23

I go to the sales on Boxing day before everyone else is up. I WFH and I'm sick of the sight of my four walls by Xmas so I love getting up when most normal people are still snuggly in their beds. I have a mooch around Boots and Next and pick up all the bargains that two days before people were paying twice as much for and stock up the present box for the next year.

Having said that, if the shops weren't open, it wouldn't bother me at all. But since they are, that time is a little time just for me. I usually get back just in time for DH and DD to be up and I get a lovely breakfast put in front of me.

It wouldn't be for us all to be the same! Merry Christmas!! Xmas Grin

teatowel · 08/12/2015 15:23

Totally and absolutely agree with you! It is so sad that this society cannot go 48 hours without shops opening.

Letustryagain · 08/12/2015 15:26

Also, I have one DSis who works in retail (although they close on Boxing Day) and another who owns a pub.

But it was their choice to do those jobs and they fully admit to it. Just the same as I chose to do a job and WFH so like to get out and go to the shops when it's not too busy (and in fairness, where I go is quiet on Boxing Day... Next in our town is incredibly quiet because all the sensible people are still in bed).

Original poster
Daisysbear · 08/12/2015 15:33

A lot of people don't get to do the job of their choice. And as someone has already said, shops opening on Boxing Day is not the same as hospitals, care homes etc where there is no option but to ask staff to come in.

OP posts:
LovelyFriend · 08/12/2015 15:36

It is really easy to avoid this shopping culture - just don't do it.

Don't go shopping on boxing day and be choosy as to what TV shows you watch with advertisements (I record them and then FF the ads).

You can create your own Boxing Day lull! You aren't "Everyone".

I've not done the post Xmas sales for years and years - if you stop paying them attention they stop exiting or having an meaningful relevance to your life.

There - my simple solution to completely ignoring Boxing Day sales.

Original poster
Daisysbear · 08/12/2015 15:37

Except that the poor staff can't avoid the shopping culture.

OP posts:
TheBunnyOfDoom · 08/12/2015 15:39

Most shops don't give staff a choice. You generally have to work either Boxing Day or NYD. Christmas Day and NYE are normal working days so you have to work them as well. And most people don't choose to work retail - it's hardly a vocation like a nurse, doctor or firefighter. It's just a job, and a poorly paid one at that.

I wish it was against the law for shops to open on Boxing Day and New Years Day, and I wish shops had to shut at say, midday on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. Give retail staff a chance to have some time off with their family as well.

And even if shops open at 10am, don't kid yourselves that staff get a lie-in! We'll be in at 6am as usual to stock shelves, clean etc. It's just a normal day. and it sucks

LaurieFairyCake · 08/12/2015 15:43

For the first time ever I'm going to Lush on Boxing Day morning. All their boxes are half price or even less.

I like bathing a lot and can't afford £4 for a bath bomb. So I'm going to go and spend my Christmas money on bath shit.

I will be in and out in 10 minutes. All the boxes sell out within the first half hour.

ivykaty44 · 08/12/2015 15:44

I can't understand the logic of shops wanting to open.

On Christmas day retail has its biggest online sales as the shops are closed, so why not stay closed another day and have another bumper sales day

I ignore shopping on Xmas day and boxing day and don't go shopping. We do the duck races or lunch with friends and family.

That said this year plans are for cycling/ attending football over the festive season with much later lunch

Cycling/football is a hobby for us, for a lot of British people shopping is a hobby...

LaurieMarlow · 08/12/2015 15:45

I get that it's a shame Daisysbear (though I enjoy shopping more than most and do understand the appeal for those that partake - hasten to add that I've never actually ventured out on boxing day myself).

I just think it's almost a category error to rail against shops for it. There is absolutely no incentive for them to do anything else. It would look like madness.

It's part of a much bigger (and very interesting) discussion about the degree to which big business should be encouraged/forced to do things that put societies & their employees needs above their own desire for profits. And who/how/when that should be administered.

And we should be having that debate, most definitely. But it needs to be more sophisticated than 'they should close on boxing day because it's the right thing to do'.

ivykaty44 · 08/12/2015 15:49

On another note I saw last year that Starbucks in southampton was open for a few hours on Xmas day. For some lonely people this must be a bit of respite if you don't have family and friends to visit or can't because you need to be in work the next day at 6am and can't travel vast distances home.

redstrawberry10 · 08/12/2015 15:51

There is no need really to be open on Boxing Day.

so you know better than store managers?

TheBunnyOfDoom · 08/12/2015 15:52

Store managers have no choice! It's head office that decide. My store manager would close on Boxing Day if he had a choice - he loses money because he has to pay everyone double-time and we're insanely quiet. But he doesn't get that choice.

redstrawberry10 · 08/12/2015 15:53

It's part of a much bigger (and very interesting) discussion about the degree to which big business should be encouraged/forced to do things that put societies & their employees needs above their own desire for profits. And who/how/when that should be administered.

the trouble is that many stores make or break their business at this time of year. Which means they need to be well stocked in case of a huge increase in sales and liquidate the rest after christmas.

People like cheap prices but don't like the price we all have to pay.

redstrawberry10 · 08/12/2015 15:54

Store managers have no choice! It's head office that decide.

I don't know who decides, but the blanket statement that they don't need to be open presumes you know all businesses needs.

TheBunnyOfDoom · 08/12/2015 15:58

But they don't NEED to open. If a shop is going to fold because they close on Boxing Day, there is much more going on.

CEO's think that the more hours stores are open, the more money they'll make. But it doesn't work like that. Longer opening hours = more staff = more money spent on wages. If shops are open 24/7 they have to pay night-rate on top of that.

The longer hours = more money idea only works if there are customers! Not all shops are busy all the time and I would guess that local store managers know more about trading patterns than CEO's in offices hundreds of miles away that have never set foot in the area.

Why would a shop NEED to open on Boxing Day? What's going to happen if it doesn't? NEED implies that something horrific will happen if they shut.

Original poster
Daisysbear · 08/12/2015 15:59

Well I don't know much about business, but I assume if all shops remained closed on Boxing Day then no shop would have the edge and people who couldn't indulge in their shopping addiction on 26th Dec would simply wait until 27th.

But I accept that might be a simplistic way of looking at it.

OP posts:
cardibach · 08/12/2015 16:00

Surely their need is to make money? If people are going to buy, they'll do it when the shop is open, therefore if none opened until 28th, that's when the shopping would happen - as it used to. Opening 26th, 27th and 28th doesn't create more demand, it just dilutes it.