To think that all shops should be shut on Boxing Day?

[Terfing]

With the exception of a few pharmacies etc.

About ten years ago, I worked in retail as a student. We would close early on Christmas Eve and not open again until the 27th.

I have a younger family member who got a temporary retail xmas job this year. At their interview, they were told that they would have to work Boxing Day, for which they are getting no extra pay. Even worse, they have to stay late on Christmas Eve and come in early on Boxing Day to help set up the sale.

AIBU to find this very sad? Can people really not go more than one day without shopping? We could ten years ago, and nobody died! What changed?!?

No-one outside the Care/emergency services should be working Christmas Day.

Would you be happy wit noTV and/or radio? No electricity? Farm animals unfed?

I have my own little protest and refuse to go on boxing day. It makes no difference as the thousands that do go means the shops will open.

Those saying what about people who don't celebrate Christmas. When I have travelled abroad and it has been a religious festival on everything closes. Other countries close shops etc.... So why can't we as a Christian country close? I don't go abroad and demand they open the shops as I don't celebrate what is going on.

I have more respect for shops that still close on boxing day. Although the list is getting less and less.

Retail places should be closed Boxing Day or the staff should be getting triple time,

Our local Toby Carvery is open Xmas Day and charging a huge amount for dinner. Waiting staff will apparently get time and half.. I think this beyond appalling ...they should get much much more for working that day,

I think if questioned the majority of British people would say they are culturally Christian - the majority definitely celebrate Christmas in some way.
Among the definitely non Christian people I work with ( some Muslim, one Jewish) most of them do something at Christmas even if they don’t celebrate it as a religious festival - most of them will still see it as a chance to have family time even if they don’t have a tree/Santa/church

We pay bank hol rate on Boxing Day

We also retain our student workers.... fully trained staff members away at uni who come back in the hols to take strain off other staff members

They are usually keen to work over the hol period

It's also safer for our stores to be occupied as much as possible, arson and burglary more likely to be attempted if the store is left empty for 2 days in a row

It's not a new thing.

I worked as a Christmas temp in Debenhams at Christmas 1994. I had to stay late on Christmas Eve to set up the sale and be back at 8am on Boxing Day for the start of the sale. And it was busy too.

"Don’t want to work Wednesday? Avoid retail, hospitality, essential and emergency services."

Yes, because everyone has a choice about what job they do. My DH doesn't want to work in retail, but for various reasons has ended up trapped in a job he hates.

I'm sure the job centre is really understanding if unemployed people refuse to apply for retail jobs as well. Sometimes you have to take whatever job you can get.

Totally agree.

YANBU and I wish everyone would boycott the ones that are open!

MyMyMyMy according to 2011 census 60% of people identify as Christian, with the next biggest religion being Islam at 5% (25% ticked no religion)
Obviously that’s a few years ago & will have changed slightly but the number of people that see themselves as Christian is bigger than you would think.
I agree that shopping is a big pasty of Christmas to most but that still doesn’t mean the shops need to be open in Boxing Day!
I’m not religious at all but I don’t bedgrude anyone a couple of days off to spend time with their family or friends.
Everything that’s cheap in the shops on Boxing Day could just be bought on the 27th

I agree, although I do go shopping in the boxing sales it's because I need to buy clothes at a reduced price.

If the shops weren't open the I wouldn't go but because they are I do go because if I do wait a few days there will be nothing decent left to buy.

This always seems to come up, and its usually from people who ^can't conceive" why anyone would want to go out on boxing day.

Arking back to some non existent time when no shops opened for days, it's always shops as well, no one talks about restaurants pubs etc to be shut, just shops because some people find the idea ghastly

I live in Bavaria, Southern Germany and its a catholic state with the most bank holidays of all the German states.
The shops are closed every Sunday and all bank holidays.
Today they close at 2pm and won't reopen until 27th.
The only things open when everything is closed are petrol stations (they sell a few grocery items but nothing like in the UK) and the supermarkets at large railway stations and airports.
It's good because people do get their time off but it's annoying if you run out of something. So you are forced to be organised. It is possible.
I liked the shops being open on Sundays in the UK but I don't mind them being closed either.
I would add though that even if the UK shops close it wouldn't necessarily mean no one worked.
I worked for a well known DIY chain in the UK and we were closed on Xmas day and Easter Sunday. Christmas day was a day off unpaid and Easter Sunday we still had to work even though the shop was shut. I often had to work boxing day and as at the time my family weren't nearby and I lived in a tiny flat I had to not drink and leave on Christmas day to be back for work. Was really shit Tbh.

Also.... if the shops are shut for two days how would the higher contracts actual fit in their contracted hours??

You can't fit in 2 days off and 2 days with store shut on a 39 hour contract for example! Working on a 7 day week.... unless you book holiday, which kind of forces your hand

the teachers working on Christmas Day so children from poorer families have a Christmas dinner.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/school-open-christmas-day-hard-13773205?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

Where I am we don’t have Sunday trading. People are requesting it, but our gov haven’t yet agreed. Those who are against us are the “oh poor retail workers forced to work 7 days a week no time with their families and they should be able to go out for Sunday lunch” brigade who seem to forget that people have to work on a Sunday to allow others to go for lunch....waiting staff, chefs etc.

A few months ago everything shut on a Sunday. Hotels. Restaurants. Shops (small ones can open but are not allowed to sell flowers...) everything. People kicked off.

The % of Brits who celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday is probably quite small. For many people Christmas is a secular holiday and shopping is part of that. The religious minority don’t have the right to tell others how to celebrate or force people to observe against their wishes.

MyMyMyMy I 'm not trying to impose religious views on anyone. The reason I feel shops shouldn't open on Christmas day is because the folk that work in retail deserve a break. The run up to Christmas is very busy. Then they want staff to stay behind after the shops close to get ready for the sale, then many of the big department stores want their staff in before 6am (of course, no buses or public transport then). My dc are late teens / early 20s and many of their peers work PT or holiday jobs in shops. I think they should not have to get up at 5am or earlier on Boxing Day to get to work (and often their parents do to as no other way to get in to work). Even worse of course if you work in retail and you have a young family and want to get everything done around those hours.
ds's gf has just done 2 x overnight shifts for 12 hours in the shop she works in. dd1's friend was told she had to work Christmas Eve until 9.30 pm in her job in her university town (long journey home later). If shops didn't open on Boxing day, people could actually have 2 full days not at work after such ridiculously long shifts. It's hardly asking the world, is it?

Ynbu but i dont consider myself to be U that I am glad they are open. I work 27th 28th this year and i want to go to the sales as do a lot of people. Most jobs have downsides sadly... I work all bank hols apart from Christmas.

On these threads I always think of that advert about the old man who goes to his local shop Christmas and it’s closed.

I always have worked Christmas through jobs in retail, hospitality and now the nhs

I am sorry to hear that some people are lonely at xmas. But why should it be the job of underpaid and overworked retail staff to fill this void?