Do you really need to visit shops on Boxing Day?

[kolpa]

Before you decide to go to half the stores which are open today, think - do you actually need anything? If not, stay away from them.

Those supermarkets that are open would have very few deliveries. Perhaps milk n bread as majority of these are delivered by the bakery and dairy. It depends on if they worked yesterday. As some distribution centres were closed yesterday.

I personally believe that people only shop because the shops are open. If some were open yesterday, they would have gone in.

A good number of the retail workers today are people who don’t have a car who usually bus it in. But no buses means either get someone to drive them in or get taxi/uber which are 1.5-2 times more expensive.

So if you can survive a day of visiting about half the stores which are open today, stay at home or go to others’ homes.

Yes, of course. Which is why we don't need shops open on Boxing Day.

Santa forgot something that was needed for a present to work! So I had to go to the shop. I do think they should be shut though.

God no. I can’t imagine anything worse than more shopping. I loved it when I was young, though.

Exactly, many places don't pay extra for bank holidays. Especially convenience stores

I used to work in retail as a teen up until I got a graduate job after uni, so about 7 years. We weren't allowed to book leave during December and I can tell you that every single member of staff that was scheduled for boxing day hated it. People in buying reduced xmas baubles etc which let's face it they do not need at that moment in time. The next sale I just can't get behind....there is no need to be open at 6am.
I get some want out of the house but go for a walk or a drive.

Mumsnet generally appears to HATE low wage workers. Hence why people are piling on OP with such zeal.

Tesco is closed today - the cashier told me the other week that she was looking forward to not having to work. Lidl and Aldi closed too. Sainsbury’s (unsurprisingly) and Morrisons open.

Guess we can tell who treat their staff better from that!

I was in Tesco today.

Agree working retail Boxing Day is hell!

Definitely closed where I am.

Plenty of shops do sell loads on Boxing Day though… this isn’t just about your experience.

Mine is open 9-6. Wiltshire.

And some Next staff are certainly working as online is open…

They are not supposed to be.

I used to be a retail merchandiser. Nobody is despatching in their warehouses on Boxing Day and all the web sale stuff changes over on a timer.

I think some of the smaller Express shops are open.

It's a Tesco Extra with two floors.

Seems an odd issue to be so opinionated on. Some people will be very lonely over Xmas so getting out to the shops provides them quite a bit of relief.
Some people find holidays really difficult so maintaining some normalcy is needed.

It’s easy to assume that all Boxing Day shoppers are consumerist, shopping addicts. They might just be really unhappy and need some social interaction

All the Lidls near me are closed. The Tesco Extra is open. Went there today, and need to go again tomorrow too.

All stores are supposed to be open. If your Tesco is closed please contact the customer engagement centre when they are open and let them know. Saying that, there is no way this could be covered up, so it would definitely be internally noted.

There’s is a difference between normal Tesco , which is closed 25 and 26 of December and Tesco Extra which is closed only 25 of December and being open on Boxing Day from 9-6 pm.

When I worked in retail, it was mostly families or groups of people coming in to mooch around

only because people visited last year!
if everyone had done what OP suggests and stayed away last year, the shop would have made a loss and would be unlikely to open this year. If nobody goes this year, it might not open this year. Never to late to make a change.

Tesco have staff in on Christmas Day rather then shut the stores though as its costs less and work needs to be done between Christmas Eve close and Boxing Day opening. Even if they close on Boxing Day they would still have staff instore.

Who are you to tell people what to do?
While I don’t make a habit of doing a big shop and don’t usually need to on Boxing Day,we did need bread. If people knew that many shops were closed on Boxing Day, it just make the stores even busier either side of Christmas and Boxing Day 🤷‍♀️