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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:
stardusty5 · 12/12/2015 16:31

YANBU and i say that as a Boxing day sale shopper myself. I would be happy for the sales to start in the New Year like in the olden days!

I save up all year for a bit of a splurge on boxing day. I like to get into town before all the common sizes go. I buy reduced decorations and all kinds and i love it.

If the shops remained shut, i would still go on the first day of the sales so it makes no difference to me

Hihellohi · 12/12/2015 16:32

Last year I drove around central London looking at the lights. Pret a manger in marble arch was open and had plenty of people in there. If a business is open, people will go.
Should everyone be at home having Christmas dinner of turkey?

baublesbells · 12/12/2015 17:17

And shopping on the other three hundred and sixty odd days of the year just isn't enough for them?

Plenty of people want to shop Boxing Day to take advantage of sales and why not?

You don't have to so don't know why you have such a cob on Grin

baublesbells · 12/12/2015 17:23

Oh i see So its a case of "i was mugged so my neighbour should be mugged too"

You do come to some bizarre worrying conclusions Hmm

You dont sound happy about the fact that you worked in retail

You have no fucking idea of my thoughts of working in retail

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 12/12/2015 17:24

I don't want too. It's the folk who have to work BD who'd rather not because people can't do without their retail therapy for more than a day that I feel sorry for Hmm

baublesbells · 12/12/2015 17:27

I cannot think of a single good reason why Maccy D's needs to open on Christmas Day

If they want to why not? Doesn't have to be a good reason to go, does there?

baublesbells · 12/12/2015 17:29

It's the folk who have to work BD who'd rather not because people can't do without their retail therapy for more than a day that I feel sorry

I don't feel sorry for them. It's just life Hmm

I don't fancy going in Monday but I will Grin

I will be dancing to the shops on Boxing Day with millions of others

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 12/12/2015 17:32
Hmm
baublesbells · 12/12/2015 18:00

Happy Boxing Day !!

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 12/12/2015 18:26

Oh it will be. I don't have to work in retail over the festive period anymore.

baublesbells · 12/12/2015 21:06

It's that why you have a cob on because you used to Grin

You want to let it go!!!!

HelenaDove · 12/12/2015 23:19

Like you have baubles!

baublesbells · 13/12/2015 00:38

I get 12 days off, do you think I care? Grin

Wasn't bothered when I worked in retail, job is a job at the end of the day

goawaycats · 13/12/2015 16:51

Some people love Christmas. It annoys hem when Christmas is minimised by others.

Others don't love Christmas and it annoys them when people try to force them to participate.

There's both types in the world.

Personally I like shops being open.

FellOffMyUnicorn · 13/12/2015 19:20

MrsItsNoworNotatAll : maybe someone WANTS to get a McDs on Christmas day....

If you dont want to go shopping on Boxing day, well dont bloody go then, if your DD/DS/Neighbours cat has to work in retail on boxing day, well thats easy, get a job thats NOT in retail?

I dont want to go to work on monday morning, but I work office hours and thats when I'm expected to be there.

Stop trying to revert to 'the good old days' because you dont like the way things have changed, some of us LIKE boxing day sales (thousands of people by the look of the people queuing) who are you to stop them doing what they enjoy

kali110 · 14/12/2015 04:11

Because it's just that easy to get another job....

kali110 · 14/12/2015 04:18

Actually no, when i started it was never in my contract. Store didn't open on bd or new years for nearly 10 years.
What about people who can't actually get into work??
there are no buses running on bd and i'm not allowed to drive.
Taxis cost a fortune.
I suppose retail staff asked for that too Hmm

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 14/12/2015 07:22

Good grief Unicorn! Do calm down theres a love Hmm

megletthesecond · 14/12/2015 07:35

When you work in retail you are essentially at the beck and call of head office management. They couldn't care less if you have to get a taxi in (you won't get it back in expenses) neither do they care if it's going to cause you problems if they start opening on boxing day.

Original poster
Daisysbear · 14/12/2015 09:57

It is sad that some people have to go shopping on Boxing Day in order to have some sense of company over the Christmas period. But then, when you read some of the self centred threads on here about people basically wanting to pull up the ladder over Christmas excluding everyone bar partner and children, it's no surprise.

Harking back to the old days isn't necessarily a negative thing. There was more of a sense of community, people knew their neighbours and far fewer people spent Christmas day unwillingly alone.

Opening up shops on Boxing Day and forcing staff to cut short their family Christmas or not even be able to travel home for Christmas is hardly the ultimate answer.

OP posts:
FellOffMyUnicorn · 14/12/2015 11:37

I am calm, thanks Hmm right back at ya!

I'm just fed up with the "I don't like how things have changed" brigade trying to make everyone dance to their tune

Personally - I hate crowds, so going out to the sales is the last thing I will be doing on Boxing day, but I wont be campaigning to stop anyone else doing it.

Lets bring back the good old days? sure, how far back do you want to go? Back to 1871 when it was brought in for England? Back to 1974 when Boxing day was introduced to Scotland as a bank holiday?

Seriously - are you saying that the only job you can get is in retail? there are no other jobs around?

FellOffMyUnicorn · 14/12/2015 11:38

England and Canada's Boxing Day evolved into a major shopping event in the 1980s — the equivalent of post-Thanksgiving Black Friday. But this year, many of the sales started earlier in an effort to boost the slumping economy.

I thought it had been longer

content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1868711,00.html
www.pauldenton.co.uk/Boxingday.htm

hollinhurst84 · 14/12/2015 11:44

I was the one in McDonalds on Christmas Day. Other people in there - nurses, police, paramedics, fire, breakdown company...

Original poster
Daisysbear · 14/12/2015 11:56

"I'm just fed up with the "I don't like how things have changed" brigade trying to make everyone dance to their tune"

People are commenting on something that they feel is having a negative effect on society and unfairly infringing on retail staff. That's not 'trying to make everyone dance to their tune". There are some things that people feel have changed for the worse and we're entitled to say so. Just because something is new and different doesn't automatically mean it's better.

OP posts:
TaliZorahVasNormandy · 14/12/2015 12:02

I've only ever been shopping on BD once and vowed never again.

It was sheer hell so that basis, YANBU.