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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:
Zombiemama · 08/12/2015 22:57

It's just horrible how companies see pound signs at christmas. It's not enough to extend opening hours increase deliveries in the run up to Christmas eve but to then insist staff stay late to set up sale and then back in early on boxing day it's just a joke. My old employers now open new years day aswell

sickofforgettingpassword · 08/12/2015 23:00

I haven't read all the comments but I'm certain marks and Spencer's don't open on Boxing Day and they don't seem to be suffering missing one day, I wish they'd all follow their lead.

And surely it's mainly returns and exchanges after Christmas anyway?!

revealall · 08/12/2015 23:00

I remember over hearing a conversation in Tesco Express a few years back.
Manager: please do the Christmas Day shift
Staff: well I really don't want to....
Manager: I'm going to insist. Look I'll pay double time..

For Christmas Day, in a one horse town. Just ridiculous. At least in the hospitality sector you might get decent tips and a bit of free food but retail?

Christinax · 08/12/2015 23:18

i agree, now you can shop online there is no need, people deserve a break during the holidays, the sales can open online during boxing day then after in shops like the 27-28th

Owllady · 08/12/2015 23:23

I think hospitality is a bit different, alot of its purpose is for entertainment over holiday/celebration periods
I know back in the day, when I worked in a pub, we would do Christmas lunch but shut up early evening because by that time everyone wanted to go home anyway and iirc this is the problem Mary had in Bethlehem. Hence why Jesus wasn't born in a pub or a Tesco express

Mehitabel6 · 09/12/2015 08:07

If only people stayed at home and refused to go shopping there wouldn't be the problem.

Original poster
Daisysbear · 09/12/2015 10:32

DaisyBear If there were no broadcasting - or perhaps just one radio station with recorded music and a few news bulletins - a lot more staff would not have to work either. If the petrol stations had to close so we could only travel one tanks-worth of fuel, that's more people having a rest. Where do you want to stop? Pubs? Restaurants? Or indeed churches?

I would have no problem with pubs and restaurants closing on Boxing Day. People need to be able to drive so petrol stations are fairly essential. I also wouldn't have a problem with radio stations reducing their hours of broadcasting to give more staff time off.

I don't see any point in dragging staff into large department stores and shopping centres on Boxing Day because some people can't last more than 24 hours without shopping. Apart from small local shops selling essentials such as milk and chemists who are needed to make up prescriptions, there is nothing people buy on Boxing Day that cannot wait until 27th.
Services providing entertainment add to the festive spirit. The Next sale doesn't.

OP posts:
Original poster
Daisysbear · 09/12/2015 10:38

A friend of mine used to work in retail. She said on Boxing Day, by the time you'd set off staff wages and heating and lighting costs, against the number of people who'd only come in to exchange stuff or spend gift vouchers, the profit was minimal.

OP posts:
LovelyFriend · 09/12/2015 10:42

I don't see the point in fretting about all this obo all the people who work in retail. Completely pointless waste of time - many people are happy to work these days.

Shit hours all round are a factor of retail work IMO. Shift work is difficult too yet people do it (Thank you nurses, doctors, police, fire officers etc). Won't anyone think if the dreadful early starts the bin men are doing on a daily basis!

If you don't want to go shopping on Boxing Day or any day for that matter, it really is rather simple - don't go.

Original poster
Daisysbear · 09/12/2015 12:11

That's not the point of the thread though. While obviously there are some jobs which necessitate working on Christmas day - nurses, emergency services, care workers for instance, there is absolutely no need whatsoever for shops to be dragging in staff in the early hours of Boxing Day.
And what is wrong with expressing concern or annoyance at the fact that some people are being unnecessarily forced to work on Christmas Day, mainly due to greed and ridiculous levels of consumerism. We're all part of the same society, so it's valid to have a view on this.

OP posts:
Original poster
Daisysbear · 09/12/2015 12:11

Sorry, for Christmas Day read' Boxing day'.

OP posts:
coffeeisnectar · 09/12/2015 14:56

puppy no I think it's extremely unlikely I will be on mumsnet on Xmas day or boxing day. I might watch something on tv but as I'm cooking dinner it's more likely we will put a cd on and will be spending the day with dp and the dc and then going across the road in the evening to see friends and have some food and drinks there. Boxing day will see us down the beach walking off the hangover :o

HelenaDove · 09/12/2015 17:14

Radio DJs are paid a bloody sight more than retail workers. A retail workers wage for Boxing Day could quite easily be wiped out by having to get a taxi in to work and back again due to there being no buses running. There are none running round here on Boxing Day and we have several supermarkets dotted about as well as a designer shopping complex.

What next comparing Eamon Holmes doing a telethon to a paramedic on a night shift.

Barmaid101 · 09/12/2015 17:24

I work in a pub, have to work Christmas Day, all staff must work Christmas Day.
We have a restaurant full of people booked in. Two years ago when I was working I had a table of 8 people telling me it was a shame I was having To work Christmas and I should be home with my family! Ummmm maybe if they stayed at home and cooked their own food I could have stayed home.

I love how loads complain about family having to work xmas eve and Boxing Day, how many of you have been out for a drink/ bite to eat on either Christmas Eve, Boxing Day or Christmas Day.

Working is part of life. I have a 15 month old daughter, my dh has to work 8:30-6:30 Christmas Eve. Christmas Day I am working 11-4:30 Boxing Day dh is working 9:30-16:30 it's life! Nothing we can do about it. So this weekend off i have swapped a shift and it is my dh weekend off, we are off to see family and are doing Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day then!

Andrewofgg · 09/12/2015 17:26

Radio DJs are well paid, but not so the technical folk without whom they cannot broadcast.

People need to be able to drive so petrol stations are fairly essential.

Why? How many of us really need to be able to drive further than one tankful will take us?

OP The trouble is that beyond the life-and-death cases there is no real test of what is necessary on Sunday or Boxing Day or any other day, is there?

squoosh · 09/12/2015 17:28

Barmaid it's so foreign to me that pubs and restaurants in the UK are open on Christmas Day. In Ireland most pubs close their doors at about 5pm on Christmas Eve and only really open up again on the 27th.

squoosh · 09/12/2015 17:30

Well local family run pubs often keep normal pub hours on Christmas Eve but city centres become ghost towns.

HelenaDove · 09/12/2015 17:34

Barmaid i can honestly say ive never been out for a meal or to the pub on Christmas Day Boxing Day or any other.

Your service is more essential than retail. There is an MNer whose daughter was in hospital over Xmas Sadly her young daughter passed away later on. After visiting her in hospital they had to go find somewhere to eat so it was good that somewhere was open.

I very much doubt that they would or did swing a shopping basket around Next afterwards!

Barmaid101 · 09/12/2015 17:35

Open normal Christmas Eve and Boxing Day 12-4 on Christmas Day, and 12-6 on New Year's Day! People moan we are not open later on Christmas Day as it would be nice to go for a drink in the evening Hmm

GlitteryRollers · 09/12/2015 17:46

YANBU.

I also think the people who go and stand outside Next at some ungodly hour on Boxing Day need to get a bloody life.

expatinscotland · 09/12/2015 17:48

YANBU!

HelenaDove · 09/12/2015 18:59

From the second link.

One local primary school headteacher said: “Yesterday one of our students was poorly, but they had come into school. The mum works at Sports Direct but had to go to work as she is on a zero hours contract and can’t get any more work. We wanted to give the child medicine, but we couldn’t get hold of the mum to get consent. These are the sorts of things that happen quite frequently. God forbid that a child had a serious accident, because we wouldn’t be able to get hold of the parents. We would have to call the police to go into the warehouse.

ForalltheSaints · 09/12/2015 19:27

Double VAT for the day and the problem would go away. I'd be delighted even if it was no opening until mid-morning, say 10am.

Divorce solicitors would be happy too as if some families could not escape on Boxing Day, I expect their business would increase.