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.

These people are not necessarily regular NEXT customers. They are opportunists who want to resell the stuff. Been happening for years . Before EBay and Vinted NEXT stuff used to turn up in car boot sales and pubs!

I remember it being like this in the mid 90s when it was often the "only" decent shop on the High Street. Didn't realise it was still a thing though. Most of their stuff is trashy, poorly made, sizes off, and doesn't wash well (ie might as well go to Primark) these days so I am surprised tbh.

Back in the day their clothes were much better. I still have a couple of 100% wool coats which are well cut and have been in my work wardrobe for 20 years and look as good now as they did when I bought them.

Yep mine was on the 22nd, previewed before and got what I wanted at leisure.

Bit unrelated here, but I went to River Island with my teenager yesterday, who had xmas money burning a hole in their pocket. There was lots of lovely reduced items and not a queue in sight. It was the mens section, though.

With Vinted now and all the great second hand clothes available, I can't imagine queuing to get into a shop for the sales. Its very positive how attitudes towards second hand clothes have changed.

I went to the Next sale near me yesterday morning and didn’t witness anything like what you described. Queues were long but I managed to get my three children lots of new clothes that were needed. Everyone was respectful and no one was chucking handfuls of clothes into bags!

Hilarious. Next clothes at the best of times are spectacularly awful. Frumpy, poorly made, badly cut, dreadful fabric. Who the hell wants to fight over them at 3am Even at half price! Is this some kind of weird group think/madness of crowds? What POSSESSES anyone to get up at 3am the day after Xmas day to do this???!!! Seriously!

I once went and never again. The shop assistants had already lost it at 6am with the unruly crowd that were trampling and grabbing. I came out thinking what have I just witnessed!

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.

Yep - because they’re putting all these clothes on Vinted at nearly full RRP, especially the baby clothes. And the listings say “brand new with tags so no offers!”

They are the same crowd that swarm you at car boot sales. Not genuine shoppers but opportunists trying to make money.

I think they are professionals reselling them on ebay et al. The kids are dragged up because they have no one to mind them at home and are fed to keep them quiet, probably had no breakfast or enough sleep.

I never found NEXT sale online or in store worth it as they never put the good stuff out.

i also worked there years ago and did the sales as a teenager and it’s exactly as you described. To the point I won’t go in there now as an adult when there is a sale on. People used to queue in the early hours, in the dark!

@SoloMumJustMuddlingThrough Next sales have been bedlam for at least 20 years especially in between Xmas and New Year. This is not new news.

Is the Next sale a thing?

I used to get up super early for the Next sale when my DC were tiny, they are 31 and 28. It’s been a thing for decades.

I also stopped going many years ago, it used to be great for children’s clothes. When they grew out of wearing them I stopped going.

I did get up this year at 7 to go to the out of town M&S on the 27th for 8am though, it was worth it!

Worked at next while at sixth form. You could bring a family member or friend
to work the sales. Brought my best friend every time. We used get there really early, hide the things we wanted to buy lol (we got 25% off sale so was worth it) but it was carnage. People camped overnight and were like animals.
At the tills we were told to 'roll and stuff' the clothes into bags to get through the crowds. It was awful but at our age we loved the buzz of it all. The trick was to offer to do the really early shifts so you werent there for clean up, or, work the mens section. If anything the sale prep was worse. Dotting everthing with red markers and reorganising the store.

I popped in yesterday to see if there was anything for DS and ours seemed slightly more civilised, but a little less than 3 hours after it opened the kids department was starting to look cleaned out.

They had some stuff in the sale that has recently been in the store for full price but also a lot that seems to be from years past.

On the upside we actually need sleep bags in the next size up and I managed to get both a 1 tog and a 2.5 tog in the sale along with a few nice bits for him for summer so I’m pleased with that!

Next and M&S wasn't open on Boxing Day

The Next sale has always been like this, oddly. In the 90s people in my city used to camp out on Christmas night to get in line for the boxing day sale. I had a friend who was obsessed with Next (we were teens and it was considered an older person's shop, a bit like Seasalt) and she said as soon as you got let in you grabbed anything in sight and would check it after to see what you wanted to keep. Utter madness.

I think with Next it depends on the branch, ours didn't look too bad, its not a huge branch though but some are horrendous, I can remember going to the Centre MK one years ago and it was awful.

I’ve never understood the ‘hype’ with the Next sale, it’s not a shop I buy from usually anyhow

First/last time I ever went to the sale in person was around 20 years ago, in the early 00s when I clearly had time on my hands on Boxing Day- I rocked up around 9am it just resembled a jumble sale, and a shit one at that! This was a suburban SE London branch of Next

It's been like that for years, I recall in the Trafford Centre, I think, where women were using their buggies etc to cordon off rails so they could be free to load their bin bags with the stuff. My late OH who had been dragged down there said it was like Wagon Train, one for other very oldies, where they circled the wagons for protection!

I agree with this, i don't touch the 'sale' with a barge pole, but bought my sofas on the clearance page about 5am one Sunday morning.

The Next sale has been massive for at least 20 years. I've never understood it. Where are they even storing the rum old shit they put out at sale time? I bet some of it has been wheeled out every sale for decades now.

Surprised you got returns as retailers don't usually accept returns on sale items.

I don't understand why you think you're better than the people buying stuff, when you are also there, looking for stuff to buy?

At least it wasn't boxing day this year, the day after instead- that's something positive for the staff.

I worked for Next for a good few years, there's always a lot of bullshit about the sale.
They pull all the years old stuff out the back- no. Stuff is almost always in for one season, then reduced in the sale. 85-90% of what is on the shop floor in December will be marked down. The remaining bit that's not out will be transitional stock, until they get more spring summer in, and will be marked down in the March mid season sale.
Stock that is in the stockroom now will have been on the shop floor any time from mid July onwards, and will also be reduced down and come out.
Any stock that is not sold in about the next week or two, will be shipped out to clearance stores at that point. It isn't kept in store. There might be literally the odd few bits that were found mixed in a rail or something, but only a handful and they tend to get marked down automatically to a lower price on the till, so they'll be dirty cheap.

They send all the stuff from the clearance stores to the shop- no. The clearance shops have they're own ranges as well as ex-shop stock, it's different labels, it doesn't go to the shops.

I don't know why it's so busy- because when a lot of stores have historically started their sales at 20% off, next have always, for their own brand stuff, gone in at 50%. They want a quick turnaround. It works. It goes quick.

There's no good stuff left- very true. It goes quickly. The staff get the first pick (at least when I was working there). It's the week after Christmas when they've just worked their arses off until 6pm on Christmas eve, after a shit December, and had a single day off. They deserve their perfume set at half price. We also used to have friends and family work just Christmas eve, to set up sale, and they could stick a bag of stuff away too if they wanted- we had some who did it every year for the early access. Don't know if they still do this.
Then you get the people who KNOW that they want a lot, so they get there at 5, they pick everything up in kids size 12-18 or whatever, then go take it into a corner and pick through. Or just buy it and return.

It is messy, and it's shit for the staff. You just have fitting rooms full of stuff that's been dumped/ fallen on the floor, and you just have to scoop it up, dump it in there, and have a member of staff processing as fast as they can all day long.

Next has now changed it's return policy to 7 days for sale stock to be returned, so try checking this time next week instead- everything gets processed as it's returned and back out so some good stuff comes back.

Resellers- probably are there buying, but as they've only got 7 days to return it, they either take the risk at keeping it and holding it til next winter, or it's back in the store next weekend. I don't see the problem with reselling, it's a way to make a living.

Oh, and they'll keep refilling during the day, but if you want the most recent stuff, it's 5am you need to be there. The shopfllor gets marked down first and filled up from the stockroom, but normally not until the next load of staff come in at 8/10am etc. again, that stuff is all from July onwards, but you will obviously find more autumn stuff than winter in there. Some sections won't get refilled, as it's already sold through in december- normally stuff like bags/ knitwear/ perfumes/ home/ pyjamas, that's all gone quickly

Yes, Next sales have been a thing since at least the 90s. It was carnage back then too… though I speak as second hand experience from hearing my sister describe it way back in the day.