To find Boxing Day Shopping a Bit Sad?

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Just that really!

I remember growing up, EVERYWHERE shut over the Christmas period. The roads were dead. It was very peaceful.

Now, it seems that the January sales have become the 'Boxing Day Sales'! I was chatting to some of my mum's friends and they were planning on going out shopping on Boxing Day!?! How can anyone be bothered?

We go to the Entertainer ,let DD loose in there and she picks her bday presents. I also pick up bits and pieces for the upcoming (way too many) bday parties.

customers are always saying "aww I feel sorry for you having to work"

Don't they realise they're the reason you have to work?

I'm in Germany.
Shops shut here for Boxing Day and all public / Bank Holidays
They are always shut on Sundays too

The shops still make profits
People here happily manage 2 days without shops

• and shop staff can spend more time with their families, or just chilling.

People probably buy about the same amount over the year, however many days shops are open

not being goady, but have worked Boxing Day for the last 3 years surely if it was that big a deal you would think about getting a job somewhere else?

99% of the time I love my job and one day out of the year always seemed to be too trivial a reason to quit (and despite the crap wages I enjoy it - I used to teach abroad, this was never meant to be my career but it keeps the roof over mine and my DD's head and pays the bills until I can afford to go back to university as my foreign teaching degree isn't recognised here) but when the one thing I asked for was to not work Boxing Day this year considering I have done the last 3 years (I literally told them I could and would work literally any day in December except the 25th and 26th) to be made to work it anyway was just the straw that broke this CS worker's back and made me feel like my managers don't appreciate all the extra work they ask of the staff over the Christmas period and that the only way to be taken seriously is to make trivial things the hill to die on, even if it seems extreme.

Oh and for the record, the first year I was a seasonal colleague at my store so I had to work it as I had just moved back to the UK and needed the job, the second year it fell on my contracted work day so I was expected to do it and last year there was a fuck up with the rotas and I was put in on Boxing Day but by the time it had been flagged up they couldn't persuade anyone to change their days off. This year there have been a lot of CS team members who have left and one fell down the stairs a few weeks ago and broke her leg so I was left with the short straw as the other CS team members either don't have the experience to cope with Boxing Day on their own (as they have only been in the role a few months) or are currently lying at home with their leg in plaster.

YANBU. It’s unbelievable

"Most of Europe are back at work on Boxing Day so can't see the issue with it really."

Got any stats on that? When I lived on the continent, Boxing Day wasn't a public holiday, but lots of people were still off. Many offices were closed, for example.

If anyone asked, I’d vote for the shops not to open on Boxing Day. There’s just no need.

Personally, I hate shopping. In December I end up going to the shops more times than the rest of the year put together. There’s NOTHING that would induce me to go on Boxing Day. It’s a day to relax, eat, drink, play board games and just ‘be’.

I admit to online shopping on Boxing Day sometimes —I might even have a look on Christmas Night if the telly’s particularly crap—, but I can’t imagine going to an actual shop on Boxing Day - aside from my inabaility to tolerate crowds, it would necessitate getting dressed and making an effort, both of which seem unnecessary.

I also don’t understand why people buy half a supermarket in the run up to Christmas - as we’ve established, the shops are closed for one day (and if you’re neighbourhood is anything like mine, at least one local/corner shop will actually be open on Christmas Day itself), why do people buy so much??

Years ago I worked in retail n had to work Boxing Day but sucked it up as part of the job
When my DC were quite young exDH left us for OW
Our arrangement was I had DC Xmas day he had them Boxing Day
I then always spent Boxing Day on my own - felt very lonely and ended up going shopping 😧
Now DC are adults - I still spend Boxing Day alone and often go shopping to spend my Xmas present monies and vouchers

Surely online shopping requires some kind of staffing?

Surely online shopping requires some kind of staffing?
Was just going to mention this. Yes it does.
Distribution centres have staff in on Boxing Day to process the orders coming in.

I work in retail. I wish boxing day was regarded like it was not even 20 years ago and shops closed, we get one day off over Christmas and it is shit.

Boxing Day is a wonderful extension to Christmas, a great excuse to eat,drink and do nothing much & it’s my birthday!

Shopping is like an addiction in this country, it’s bloody sad, people have to go and get their fix after one day of shops being shut

No, i get very anxious when the shops are shut. Im sure it can be peaceful if you live a relatively painless life with your family but for people who are lonely, have additional needs, or have MH problems, it's really quite unpleasant.

Yanbu, it's shit, a friend of mine gets up at 5am to go and queue for the sale at Next Talk about worshipping at the alter of capitalism. Dh is working Christmas and boxing day but he works in social care, looking after vulnerable people, totally different to working in a fucking shop selling stuff that will still be there to sell on the 27th!

It's not a new thing. In the 70s/80s I remember going shopping with my parents on Boxing Day. Not necessarily every year. They'd have scoped out what they wanted earlier in the month, and would get big ticket items at a big discount. It made a huge difference to buying things like a vacuum cleaner or dinner service. And then in the 90s I worked Boxing Day in retail. I was paid double time, so I was very happy to work it.

Now that I've got dc, we usually go to the pantomime on BoxingDay. I wonder whether the actors/crew/FoG get double time on Boxing Day? I doubt it.

Fuck Boxing day shopping, I’ll be too hungover for that shit 🤢

It's just a day, nothing special. I never minded working it, just another day of the year. Though I've worked plenty of Christmas days, I'm not religious and don't have a family.

I remember nothing of the sort in the 70's/80's, not in the UK at any rate, January sales were all the rage then with 9 O'Clock news showing people camped outside the big London stores.

People are nuts. They shop right up to Xmas eve then again Boxing Day, after possibly shopping online on Xmas day. Sad fact is, many people live lives around consuming rubbish, have no hobbies, imagination or conversation and aspire to little other than to buy stuff that’s been marketed to them as a must have. They don’t know what to do with themselves other than shop. Very sad but the world we live in. Still in a way, glad they do as it means i can enjoy my walks in the countryside in relative peace over Christmas and New Year.

Like it or lump it: retail is now part of the leisure trade and sets its hours accordingly.

I hate shopping, but if someone loves shopping why is it sad to go shopping on boxing day?

TBF, I clearly remember Boxing Day Sale adverts from the early to mid 80s. We had some on early video recordings of the good Christmas films for years. I can still hear the "Arding and Hobbs" jingle. So that's 30-35 years ago.

I remember asking then why you'd miss part of Christmas to go shopping and I still don't fancy it, but it's been a retail phenomenon in the UK for at least that long. Maybe it's a wider scale now, though.

Many shops closed on Boxing Day even 20 years ago. New year sales were a thing but many places still closed til day after Boxing Day . Certainly camping outside next (I mean- their stuff is cheap tat really) at 5am wasn’t something anyone did. I still think many people don’t shop first thing Boxing Day. And if you look at the crowds of people who are usually pressed up against doors of Selfridges etc it’s a very certain demographic, many dim witted bored teens, overseas tourists in London, or people who don’t look like they have been celebrating Christmas (many Indian or Chinese ethnicity). Many people still spend the day with their families.