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.

Next has always been crazy at the sales. I don’t understand the attraction. . There’s much better shops out there.

They will be a long time waiting for Next and M&S, they weren't open

Don't worry @SoloMumJustMuddlingThrough , Vinted are reporting their income to HMRC under the DAC7 rules.

Next stuff in general as fine.
But too much of the sale stuff seems specific to the sale and is rubbish.

This is me as well
i got my access slot on 22 Dec ….spent around £150 on bits for my 3 GD ….all items which were still available for full price online for those with non VIP access

I doubt anyone queued on Boxing Day, why post if you can't even get that right

I worked in Next in the 90s. You saw humanity in a different light during the sale.

I was once struggling through the crowd with a crate of shoes, to replenish them, when a woman picked one off the top and asked for a different size. I said, ‘Just let me get through and put these down, and I’ll check.’
She threw the shoe at my head and told me to ‘Forget it.’

My SIL used to brag about going to the Next Sale early in the morning. She had so much stuff and would then realise it wasn't suitable and she would give me bags of shit to stick on my eBay.
She didn't check sizes, it was just all about the fact she had "won" it from some other shopper.
After about 3 years of it, at a NYE party with the family when she mentioned how she had the latest bunch of unwanted crap she wanted me to sell for her, I asked why she bothered when out of 5 big bags of stuff she probably only ended up with 3 tops and a dress? Why didn't she just return it or not bother?
You'd think I'd asked her if I could eat her first born. She was offended as hell, said it was a stupid question.
I never sold a thing for her after that.
It's just blatant consumerism to show off with her. Nothing else. She could so she did. I don't own a single item from Next, I actually think due to her and that when I was selling for her, I found at my height none of it would have fitted me it all seemed to be for women of about 5ft 2 and no taller (I once tried a pair of rejected jeans in the stuff she asked me to resale).
Sad really.

DH and I went into our nearest city centre yesterday, mainly just to get out of the house. I expected it to be really busy but it was no busier than an average Saturday.

When Next first opened it sold generally good quality, well designed clothes with a slightly higher price tag. Now it’s the same polyester rubbish that everyone else sells, but still with the higher price tag. A Next bargain in the late eighties would have been worth queuing for, but not now.

This is the most depressing thread I've read in ages, and reminds me why I avoid cities! 😟

I went to my local next sale once (back in the day when the quality was decent and you could keep items for years). Never again, it was carnage. No idea why it still is given the quality is shit now.

I used to work in Next too. The sales were ridiculous. In those days jumpers would be folded on carousels and people would just pick them up and fling them all over the place. One year I had to work in Shoes - that was a new level of hell. It was worth it more then because the clothes were really high quality and the reductions made them excellent value for money. Nowadays they just make a lot of stuff for the sales, and the quality isn’t much better than Primark.

I remember the Next sale being a nightmare even in the early 2000s. Clothes just pulled off the rails and left on the floor, complete carnage of customers just grabbing stuff.

I don’t get it at all, I think it’s just hyped up by word of mouth but it’s bizarre it’s the same now as it was 20 years ago and no ones cottoned on that it’s really not worth it

Except:

1. this was yesterday NOT boxing day.
2. I didn't buy anything.
3. I never said the people were disgusting but the behaviour I witnessed was. I have only ever seen carnage like that on videos🤷

I feel so sorry for the staff, one day off away from the public and then back in to face the scrum of rude greedy people mass buying in a frenzy. I have been past Next when the sales (Winter and Summer) take place and it looks like a latter day circle of hell. Not even as if the stuff they sell is especially desirable, I got a jumper in there in early Nov (not a Next brand one but one of the more pricier brands they stock) and the quality is no better than Primark

I remember the 'Next Directory' being a big thing, I think because the clothes were better presented than in other catalogues and there was next day delivery.

Also the in-store cafes sold pimped up hot chocolate before anyone had even heard of Starbucks or Costa.

I worked for too. Hated it
The lead up to it is horrendous and doing shifts over the Christmas period is it really necessary! Only did one year thank god but actually got pushed over twice when bringing stock out by customers!

Next Directory, oh that takes me back! Used to get one and when it arrived I would sit down with a coffee and a biscuit and have a lovely long browse , The clothes were much better quality and I had some good things from there, I remember some gorgeous black suede open toed shoes with a slight platform and they tied round the ankles with broad suede ribbons. i still have a black crepe jacket trimmed with tiny jet beads, classic, well made and timeless.

It was like this 15 years ago when I used to go. People would fill bags without looking and then go to a corner and sort through what they wanted to keep. It was always carnage. I also went to a Boden 2nds sale once and that was pretty much the same.

I wasn’t aware Next were still in business! Good for them

I remember Next Directory when it still had real samples of the cloth of some of the clothing glued to the pages!! I actually remember Next launching and got the first ever Next Directory.

Yes! The fabric samples!

I worked at Next during my A Levels, circa 2003/4. I worked one memorable Boxing Day where my shift started at 5am and there was already a massive queue down the street at that time 🙄 (people are nuts).

Staff got first dibs - we each had 20 minutes to shop before the doors opened. I didn't buy a thing. Overpriced jeans for £80 reduced to £40...big woop, it was still more than i'd be willing to pay 😂
Nothing seemed worth it at all even back then, I can get equivalent quality for far better prices elsewhere. Nowadays it's worse again, you just as well go to Asda or Primark.

I've never understood the hype at all. So not worth it.

I've known several people who have worked for Next and they've all said how horrible the Boxing Day sale is as a staff member.