We should all boycott Next shops Boxing Day ( well too late for today as I was fast asleep at 6 am)

[Mammajay]

I just heard a husband on the radio. His wife had to work Christmas eve ( no problem IMO with that) and also had to work today Boxing Day.. She had to be in work for 5.30 a.m. for the 6am Next Boxing Day sale. No public transport and Christmas Day overshadowed with the worry of getting up early enough to get ready and get to work for 5.30am. No choice about whether to work either. Spirit of Ebenezer Scrooge IMO. Very poor Next. 0/10 for caring about your staff!

Does everyone celebrate Boxing Day? It's associated with Christmas, right? So do Jewish people, Muslims, etc., observe it?

No they dont. I mentioned upthread about driving home through a largely muslim part of the city(Bradford) on Christmas day and lots of places were open. Even more was open on boxing day.

Shopping the day after the biggest orgy of gratuitous consumerism is grotesque.

Maybe we don't do this at Christmas. Maybe we don't do over the top consumerism. Maybe we wait until after Christmas to get better prices on stuff as we can't afford it before Christmas.

Boxing Day doesn't really mean anything to me and I am also not particularly bothered about Christmas, we just get small token gifts so its a good time to get anything that we might need in the sales, similar to BF really though deals are not often as good.

Shopping the day after the biggest orgy of gratuitous consumerism is grotesque

Maybe your Christmas was an "orgy of gratuitous consumerism" but mine wasnt. We had a low key, small Christmas, didnt go overboard on the presents and went to Church. Then I went shopping on Boxing day- I'd hardly call that an "orgy of consumerism" but if it makes you feel superior to everyone else then go ahead- whatever gets you through the night!

Ventured out into middlesbrough yesterday at 3 pm to see a friend who runs a shop in an indoor market there and shops were just fairly busy.
Loads of sales on.
Got some lovely Christy towels from Debenhams half price and three dresses all half price..and the shop assistant even helped me find the style I liked.

No pushing or shoving. Was lovely
Certainly wouldn’t get up at silly o clock..loads of bargains out there...didn’t even bother with next.

If you treated Boxing Day as a day off for most people and the law said shops had to observe Sunday hours, then I am sure the 6am opening would end, as no high street retailer would wish to close at noon.

I do. I boycott all shops on Boxing Day. I can go 2 days without buying anything. If people stop using shops that day fewer will open and more people will have it off.

Yet again no one seems to give a shit about hospitality staff, bus drivers, taxi drivers, cinema staff etc. Just the poor over worked retail staff. It’s most odd.

Maybe because they are paid significantly less and don’t work on rotation.

Besides that the Next sale is overhyped rubbish, none of those ‘bargains’ have actually seen the shop floor, it’s the cheap tat they have had to hide out the back because it’s so awful.

Besides that the Next sale is overhyped rubbish, none of those ‘bargains’ have actually seen the shop floor, it’s the cheap tat they have had to hide out the back because it’s so awful.

So because you think this other people shouldn't shop for it, so it would make a difference if it was high class tat that you would shop for, what a snobby attitude.

f people stop using shops that day fewer will open and more people will have it off

Actually, what will happen is, the high street will go. Stats have shown that shops are currently struggling to survive due to competition from internet shopping. Many high street chains have gone already. In years gone by internet shopping didnt exist so closing on a Sunday or bank holidays made no difference to sales- people would just buy on a different day instead. Now, closing on Sundays or bank holidays means people will just shop online instead- thus taking sales away from the high street. If you shut high street shops on their days of biggest takings they will eventually disappear and only online shopping will remain. This will result on shop workers losing their jobs.

Loss of the high street:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49349703

www.theguardian.com/business/2019/sep/11/retailers-call-for-action-as-high-street-store-closures-soar

www.itv.com/news/2019-09-11/record-number-of-shops-closing-every-day-as-big-rents-and-online-shopping-continues-to-hit-high-streets/

Future projections:
www.parcelhero.com/content/downloads/pdfs/high-street/deathofthehighstreetreport.pdf

"From March 2016 to 2019, UK retail lost 106,000 jobs according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC)."

Closing shops on their most successful days will result in more and more job losses, so the people you say need a day off will eventually have every day off because they will no longer have a job.

I'll just buy what I would have bought on Boxing Day the day after. Same amount of money spent, and the shop can save on wages for Boxing Day.

Well run shops that sell good things that people want in a way people like, don't close down.

Well run shops that sell good things that people want in a way people like, don't close down

Exactly. So from a purely objective/business point of view- closing your shop on the one day of the year when you make the most profits is an extremely poor and ill advised business decision. Shutting on a day when demand is highest is stupid (from a business owner's perspective).

So it's up to people to reduce that demand. I'm doing my bit by not shopping on Boxing Day.

Maybe we should put a legal stop to internet shopping over Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Then the shops would be at no competitive disadvantage. I don't want people working in packing warehouses either.
It's not fair to say that we don't care about hospitality staff at Christmas - I personally do not go to pubs or restaurants or cinemas on CD or BD. I do not internet shop either. The only people who should be at work are those whose jobs are absolutely essential.

Having seen how much money my store took on boxing day this year I can safely say this is never going to happen. As others have said, if the demand is there then retailers would be stupid to not open. And the demand is definitely there

Well in my 65 years I have managed to never go shopping on Boxing Day or eat out or even go for a coffee! Pretty sure no one needs to shop on that day.

Even if Next feel they must open Boxing Day why the hell do they need to open so early? Just absolutely ridiculous and shit for their staff.

I used to work in retail and had to work Boxing Day with NO extra money. That meant working late on Christmas Eve to get the sale stuff ready. So instead of leaving at the normal time of 5pm we would finish at around 9pm.

Working Boxing Day was shit as almost all customers were wanting refunds. One year we actually gave back more money than we took in! Complete waste of time.

Oh and as well as working Christmas Eve and Boxing Day we also had to work New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

To the poster who said about tv and radio staff working well none of my family watch tv on Christmas Day or listen to the radio

So because you think this other people shouldn't shop for it, so it would make a difference if it was high class tat that you would shop for, what a snobby attitude

Um, nope. Reread my comment please RingtheBells. The sale stock in Next gets shipped in and isn’t actually reduced items you could have bought full price in the shop the day before. There are cheaper shops selling genuinely reduced stock at bargain prices which would be worth the trip out. If it makes me a snob to suggest people are foolish to queue up at 6am on Boxing Day for fake bargains and false advertising then yes I am full on Hyacinth Bucket.

If it's so profitable, I'm sure that Next et al can afford to pay their staff double time and make it voluntary to put oneself on the rota for Boxing day, and if they did, I'd be willing to check out their sales on that day.

As they don't, I won't.

The sale stock in Next gets shipped in and isn’t actually reduced items you could have bought full price in the shop the day before.

Several (?) Next staff have confirmed on this thread that this is not the case.

I bet if Next made working Boxing Day voluntary they wouldn't get enough staff to be able to open.

Despite quite a few posters saying they know retail workers that are more than happy to work Boxing Day and how so many youngsters jump at the chance, in all the shops I have worked in almost all of the staff did not want to work Boxing Day or New Year's Day. Most hated working Sundays as well

I agree that shops should be closed on Boxing Day .
2 days won’t kill anyone

My point is the 6am start is unnecessary. Staff in at 5.30. No public transport. No extra pay and no option. I seem to recall Next being a good employer? I have worked in hotels over Christmas, no problem. Some jobs have to be done over Christmas but selling sale goods at 6am is not one of them.