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AIBU?

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Original poster

To be horrified by the NEXT sale?!

199 replies

SoloMumJustMuddlingThrough · 28/12/2025 04:13

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.

OP posts:
Original poster
SoloMumJustMuddlingThrough · 28/12/2025 08:58

anon2022anon · 28/12/2025 08:23

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

I am calling out the disgusting behaviour I witnessed. I do think I am better than the people in there because I wasn't screaming at staff, walking over stock, eating and dropping food all over the floor, grabbing items like animals with absolutely no respect or consideration for staff or others.

The people I am frustrated with are not the regular customers but the people who are there trying to make a profit.

I was passing on my way to the supermarket (our branch opened at 8am, not the early hours, as it is in a shopping centre) and popped in to get something I genuinely needed, not because of the sale (not that there is an issue with visiting a shop because they have a sale on if that's your thing!).

I took one look in, stood there in disbelief for about 1 minute and walked straight back out. I don't understand why the staff didn't chuck out the people who were being so disrespectful. I don't think I've ever gone shopping after Christmas before, apart from food shopping , I had not the slightest idea what it could be like. Lesson learned. Avoid.

Shops are there to be shopped in. There is nothing wrong with visiting a shop when it is on. There is something very wrong with the behaviour of some that I witnessed. I felt so sorry for the staff who have to put up with it. I almost certainly would have been sacked if I had been working in Next yesterday...or walked out at the very least.

OP posts:
LemonLeaves · 28/12/2025 08:58

The Next sale has always been bonkers. I started working in retail in the late 90s. The standing joke in our shop at sale time was to think ourselves lucky, as it could be worse and we could work for Next.

TheChicDreamer · 28/12/2025 08:58

I really don’t get the Next sale. I wonder if some of the people that go lack the rational thinking to actually realise that Next these days is full of tut and it really isn’t the big thing it was in the nineties.

i remember as a teen that the Next Directory was really aspirational. When it arrived we used to pore over it and talk about it at school next day 🤣. It was always seen as highly cool to be wearing one of this season’s jumpers or whatever. And the clothes really were nice. Imaginative, well-made pieces with real direction behind each collection.

In summer 1992, my mum and I were on holiday and out shopping in Carlisle when we casually wandered into Next and they had the most amazing sale on, and hardl anyone in there! My mum bought me the wardrobe of dreams, we had bags of much coveted stuff that I’d previously earmarked in the directory. It was like a dream come true 🤩

I just can’t see what the appeal of Next is these days, it’s akin to Matalan. And too many non Next brands. It’s overwhelming and has completely lost direction.

no offence to those who actually find good stuff in there - all power to you!

eatreadsleeprepeat · 28/12/2025 09:03

SoloMumJustMuddlingThrough · 28/12/2025 05:44

I think it is selfish to clear a shelf to resale. Of course it's allowed, but that doesn't make it right. It's the same as people who clear out the reduced section in the supermarket and and end up throwing away half of it when someone could have benefited. It is unlikely that all of those people won't be reporting their profits to HMRC.

I was horrified by the whole thing - not just the clearing out of shelves but the pushing, grabbing, shouting, throwing items on the floor, food everywhere, kids in those big electric cars screaming. It was gobsmacking.

I have worked in retail before but I have never seen anything like it. I am in London, perhaps that makes a difference?

Show quote history

Probably not just London, Edinburgh yesterday, so not first day, was not as much of a scrum but the same stuffed bags of stuff, especially kids stuff.

Thegirlsdidtheirownthing · 28/12/2025 09:04

BlossomLeaves · 28/12/2025 06:04

The Next sale has always been completely bonkers. I remember back when I was a student, so 20+ years ago, I worked at Debenhams and had to be there early on Boxing Day so went to check it out as I knew people who raved about it, would camp outside from 3am etc. It was just as you describe, people behaving like absolute animals pushing people around to grab armfuls of stuff to then sort through up the corner. The other shops nearby buy who also opened that day were nothing like it.

h

NamechangebumpforMandy · 28/12/2025 09:06

rookiemere · 28/12/2025 07:39

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?

Next used to be much better quality than it is now. Back in the 80s, before websites, they did a hardback catalogue so you could see and order the full range, and you had to pay a few quid to get a copy. It was always considered a cut above!

The sales had big discounts and in the 80s it actually was on that season’s stock. You could get genuine bargains on quality stuff - and bear in mind the economic climate in the 80s with a lot of people being made redundant. The combination of big discounts on good stuff and a lot of people struggling made the Next sale into an institution.

I agree that it’s mad to queue up at 3am now when you can buy online and when the quality is no longer nearly as good, but it’s been a thing for so many decades that people still do.

Boomer55 · 28/12/2025 09:06

I got a VIP sale slot on 23rd, and bought a nice jacket, much reduced in price. There’s no way I’m hardy enough to go to the shop itself at sale time!😳

frankie001 · 28/12/2025 09:08

Yanbu. Years ago my sister worked for next, would come home exhausted and covered in bruises.

brunettemic · 28/12/2025 09:09

It’s not a new phenomenon and is the same with a lot of things, I was looking for running shoes on Vinted yesterday and saw a pair clearly bought in a sale and listed there for nearly full price.

CasperGutman · 28/12/2025 09:09

YANBU to think people should behave better. But bad behaviour at Boxing Day sales is nothing new. My mum still talks proudly about shoving through crowds and even crawling between people's legs to get to the shelves in department store sales in the 70s, and of enlisting friends to help complete her set of porcelain dinnerware as fights broke out in the queues....

FredaMountfitchet · 28/12/2025 09:10

The sale started on line last Monday . Could see the excitement 30 years ago when the label sold good quality clothing . Not so much now

godlikeAI · 28/12/2025 09:11

Futurept · 28/12/2025 04:27

I worked at next as a teenager and we all hated the sale, which we were all made to come in for at 4am. Customers behaved like absolute animals as you described. Vijyed wasn't a thing then so people were just grabbing whatever and then returning most of it later. Queues on the day were an absolute nightmare as it took an age to get through everybody's bin bag full of stuff, and then for the next 2 weeks or whatever processing returns, just insane. Everybody was grumpy and rude because they'd been queuing outside for hours in the cold. The clean up was horrendous. Consumerism at its worst. Next stuff isn't even that great!

I came on to say the same. It has always been that way. I worked there in the 90s. There used to be St John’s ambulance on standby outside and I would joke to people that you’d think some kind of life saving medicines or something were being handed out. People queued for hours and then went berserk. Next were (are?) one of the only shops to knock 50% off basically everything so there are real bargains

however, I swore I’d never go and never have. I’m surprised it’s still exactly as it always was, thirty odd years later

Poshsmith · 28/12/2025 09:11

What sort of people still queue for sales on Boxing Say…..enjoy the downtime.

AnonSugar · 28/12/2025 09:11

The Next sale is great for babies and kids up to age 7. Once they grow out of that bracket all the clothes are dull!

I used to be able to get petite jeans in the sale but now can’t find a thing.

C152 · 28/12/2025 09:12

YANBU, but I remember the NEXT sale being atrocious over 20 years ago. I'm surprised they're still popular enough for the sale to be a big thing though.

user97530895245 · 28/12/2025 09:12

I remember the Next sale of the 1990’s people waiting outside like it was a nightclub line! Didn’t realise it was still a thing with online shopping being so prevalent.

We live near Bicester Village, the Boxing Day chaos on the roads was as bad as ever, pictures of people queueing to get in from the early hours, some with tiny babies in prams, utter madness. They aim for the Chinese/rich Asian markets, god knows what sort of holiday that is, up before dawn to stand in a rainy queue then a massively overcrowded jumble sale of overpriced “pretend” very high end brands, then straight back to Heathrow!

socks1107 · 28/12/2025 09:12

I used to go a lot when my kids were small for their clothes but haven’t in about 15 years now. It was always hideous but worth the cost of half price stuff for growing kids

SeekingSolutions76 · 28/12/2025 09:15

All this next is hideous is just snobbishness. It can’t be that bad for it to still be in business. They have some nice stuff in there and I buy for work mainly.
I don’t bother with the sales as they never have what I was looking for in the sale.
I went years ago and the people clearing the rails were sat elsewhere in the store sorting through and taking what they wanted and then leaving the rest dumped wherever.
it’s the height of rudeness.

Happyjoe · 28/12/2025 09:15

My partner and I once popped into Next in Leeds, it was carnage. Dirty, clothes all over the floor which had to walk around, empty hangers scattered.. I don't think I've been sales shopping since and that was 15 years ago. No savings are worth that experience 😁

Sleepasaurus · 28/12/2025 09:17

I’ve never been tempted by Boxing Day sales. I’m far too busy eating cheese and chocolate!

A friend used to go in the early hours to queue for the sale. I’ve never understood, to me it’s the opposite of what Christmas is about.

Happyjoe · 28/12/2025 09:19

brunettemic · 28/12/2025 09:09

It’s not a new phenomenon and is the same with a lot of things, I was looking for running shoes on Vinted yesterday and saw a pair clearly bought in a sale and listed there for nearly full price.

I think that's what happens in Lush. Every year it says on the news of the long queues outside Lush and their website crashing, then see it all stuck on ebay, often for more than the original price.

ForMyNextTrickIWillMakeThisVodkaDisappear · 28/12/2025 09:19

I worked in a Next over summer including the summer sale, once over 20 years ago. Sounds like nothing has changed except for a lot of stuff now ending up on vinted. Basically, nothing you’ve said about what you witnessed surprises me. Still people nuttier than squirrel shit show up for the Next sales.

Flomingho · 28/12/2025 09:20

Really can't understand the fuss about Next. The clothes were great around the late 1990's and 2000s but they have really lost their way in recent years.

Clearinguptheclutter · 28/12/2025 09:21

I haven’t been for years but when I was a teenager/young adult (90s) it was most definitely a thing, just as you describe

I assumed most of the carnage had moved online these days but clearly that is not the case

urgh

grinchmcgrinchface · 28/12/2025 09:22

Next used to be great but all there clothes are awful these days, bad fits with bad quality. Im surprised people still buy from there!

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