To be horrified by the NEXT sale?!

[SoloMumJustMuddlingThrough]

I popped into next yesterday morning, hoping to get my daughter some new clothes in the sale. I walked straight back out. Honestly I cannot believe what I was witnessing. People were using two hands to pull clothes off the racks and then shoving them into bin bags bags without even looking at them/checking sizes etc. I was expecting it to be be busy but this was something else! The shop had only been open less than an hour and it was almost cleared out. I can only assume that people were buying to resell (a quick look on vinted confirms that suspicion with a bunch of items I saw in the sale listed today at full price). It's the first time I've ever been to the post-Christmas sales. Has it always been like this?

YABU - it's a sale, first come first serve. Don't like it? Stay out the shops until mid January

YANBU - a sale doesn't give you the excuse to behave like an animal. Stop walking around eating and dropping food all over the shop, pushing, shouting and showing zero respect for staff & other customers. Also don't be a dick.

I half blame the shops. They don't care where their profits come from. If it had been a family run store i can guarantee a few people would have been told to royally fuck right off.

I get mine each year in the online Next sale a few days before Christmas, I wouldn't go to the store, I got some of it delivered on Christmas Eve. Though my local store generally looks reasonably civilised at sale time.

As PP's say, the clearance pages early morning are generally the most fruitful, especially about a couple or so weeks after a large sale as the returns and cancellations come in. There are a couple of things I want so I will look in a week or two

Never been, but heard about it. People behave like complete arseholes, it’s embarrassing. The sheer greed is nauseating.

I was at the next home sale yesterday at 8am after I finished a 12 hour shift and it was embarrassing how people were grabbing or chucking anything with a red sticker on it. Used to live their home stuff but it has gone so downhill in past few years really needs a revival! Sick to death of cockapoo and highland coo ornaments, chavvy quote frames and abstract crap art. Used to love their bedding and curtains but price has shot up and quality has gone down. Markies is by far better and never thought I’d say that.

I went to next in the local city centre yesterday and wasn't that bad but not loads left! I'd say m&s sale looked better, lots of stock and 50% off everything 🙌

I’m not a fan of the adult clothes but the kids clothes I love

I generally buy the branded clothes in the online VIP sale like Seasalt and Josef Seibel. Obviously these aren't in the store sale, I sometimes buy Next tall but that isn't in store either.

I drove my SIL to it once at 3 in the morning. Went in with her and walked straight back out and waited in the car.

my bestie once asked me to go in to one to check for curtains as I was at work that day. For some reason they came as a single curtain not a pair so had to buy two packs. I was kneeled on the floor with one pack under my knees looking for another when a woman came along and pulled it from under me.

Yep, I have lived outside of the UK for over 16 years now, but one thing I will always remember from my time there is all the hype about Next sales, the massive queues out the door, and me thinking “but why???” Honestly never understood the phenomenon.

I had early access, I can't even remember buying from Next, so can't be their most important customer. I had a very quick look online, but didn't buy anything.

It is unlikely that all of those people won't be reporting their profits to HMRC.
@SoloMumJustMuddlingThrough Vinted share information with HMRC. There is a limit to profits.

The Jones Bootmakers sale is brilliant - I bought a £90 pair leather shoes for £31.00. The Next shop looked like a jumble sale going on so I avoided it.

I just look online.

I find they just bring all the old rubbish out from the stock cupboard for the sales.
The thought of going to the sales does not appeal to me.

There's probably a pair of trousers from 1987 still around somewhere... 😄

I went into a shop once on Boxing Day over 20 yrs ago, it was awful then so I walked back out. I don’t get it but then I don’t shop at Next at all, not my style.

I went when my DC were little so 20 or so years ago. I queued up at 5am or whatever it was and did get some good bargains among the chaos. Obviously this was pre- the proliferation of selling online (prob just eBay then) and it was pretty crazy with bargain hunters so I can’t imagine what it’s like now! I found the adult stuff to be shite though in the sales, only kids stuff was ok and I was going particularly for their wardrobes.

i get the VIP alerts still for the online version but I don’t bother logging on - sometimes Next is decent but sale stuff never is!

People shoving armfuls into bin bags? Are they actually planning on paying anything for their hauls, or just running out of the shop like a deranged Santa who's overslept and then been stuck in traffic?

Do they not provide baskets?!

I did the Next sale once, about 15 years ago and NEVER again. Next clothes just aren't good enough to be worth that trauma. I like a bargain as much as the next person but I'm not a masochist, nor am I so desperate to save a few quid on stuff that's nothing great in the first place. I think people get caught up in the hype and lose their marbles a bit. I agree most of it is bought to sell on as well. It's often foreigners ramming their bags full of discounted stuff while barely looking at it.

Besides which, I've noticed that lots of 'sale' stock seems to be the same as the stock found in the brand 'outlet' shops. Second rate, cheaply produced tat with the brand label sewn in, to dupe people into thinking they are getting the normal quality at a knockdown price when actually those items have never been on the store's rails as part of the normal season's stock anyway. It's been shipped in by the ton just for sale season because they know people will buy absolutely any old shit if it's cheap.

Same. It’s mind-boggling.

@HelloIcetime the smart ones will mix it up with multiple accounts & selling on different platforms -vinted, eBay, marketplace etc. The thick ones will simply think think the rules don't apply to them. Both will get caught out.

The Next sale has always been like this. I avoid like the plague. In the early 2000's people used to queue all night for the Boxing day sale -- not sure if that's still the case? And yes, people have always bought to sell online. Used to be Ebay, but it's now Vinted. I have never understood it.

I was working in retail yesterday. It seems that people have been saving themselves for the sales, and didn’t spend money before Christmas.

People were off the scale rude, demanding things, and basically in a feeding frenzy. I saw a lot of tat being bought. I think we’ve reached American levels of consumerism now, where everyone has mounds and mounds of clothes, 50 pairs of shoes, and every appliance under the sun.

The NEXT sales in the late 90’s, 2000’s were very good. I used to go for opening at 5am but never saw scenes like that OP.
Had my DD in 2005 and I went both summer & winter sales ( then on 27th Dec) and bought all her outfits a size up for the following year. Not that much for me though.

However, I refuse to go shopping on Boxing Day. It’s my own small protest against retail not giving staff 2 full days off at Christmas (I realise pointless as millions do go)

Online clearance at Next is pretty decent all year round depending on whether you like Next (seems it’s hideous to most of mumsnet😂😂😂)

I’ve always wondered about this because Next clothes are not even that nice!! Getting up at 4am on Boxing Day is pretty weird.

I used to go in the 90s but that was when their clothes were designed by Jeff Banks and were great for office wear - plus there wasn’t many other places to buy clothes reasonably as this was pre supermarket or online ranges.

I dragged my poor cousin out one Boxing Day and we had a Northern Irish cooked breakfast afterwards ( or at least I did). I still remember what a great haul I got with work clothes for a year - the stuff was well made then and lasted.

I can’t imagine getting up early for it these days. Who even shops in Next anymore?