To think Next should not be starting their sale at 7am on Boxing Day?

[Sherbert37]

The poor staff. Are more shops going to be open on 26th this year?

Done the retail Christmas. It wasn't loads of fun and it wasn't well paid.

I well remember trying to get people out of the shop on Christmas Eve. A weird frenzy seems to come over some people when their retail fix is curtailed. I'm sure they end up lurking in the aisles of their local 24hr garage on Christmas Day.

The shop I used to work in now makes staff stay behind on Christmas Eve to prepare for the Sale so that those poor, deprived shoppers can get going again as early as possible on Boxing Day. And a Merry Christmas to you too...

Shopping is not an essential service and if you need essential shopping items such as bread, milk etc ther is usally a garage or a local shop open. Usually run by someone who is not christian and doesn;t celebrate christmas (The man who owns our local shop is even open from 7a.m to midday on xmas day as he said he doesn;t celebrate xmas so why should he not open his shop.

There is no need for shops like next to open at ridiculous hours of the morning on boxing day or over public holidays. The world isnot going to end becasue you didn;t get an item of clothing for half price. and realistically i'm sure most of the people whogo sales shopping at those times already have wardrobes full ofbrely worn clothing.

I really would not mind if we went back to town centres and out of town shopping malls being closed on a sunday and over xmas.

I used to work xmas or new year, but then you can;t tell a woman she can;t have her baby that day as you want to be sat by the fire stuffing yourself silly!

Before I had my children , i worked in retail.
I am not qualified to do anything else. I don't have the option to get another job because I can't do it. Before anyone says go to college / uni , can't afford to. No , it is not well paid , minimum wage and lots of companies do not pay you for your lunch hour and breaks.
I was not paid more for working Christmas eve and boxing day or New years eve or new years day. We were rostered on as part of our normal working week.
Ever tried to get a bus on those days? Not easy.
I had to put up with miserable bastards speaking to me like a piece of shit all for under £9000 per year (before tax!). People would bang on the doors as we were trying to leave and insist we let them in to buy a Christmas card or a box of eggs. There was no telling them that we had cashed up and turned the tills off so we could not serve them (not allowed to , we could be sacked for taking money that had not been rung up!).
The abuse you put up with is ridiculous.
For those poor people who have to travel to work by bus , do you realise that they may have to leave their house at 6am. I feel so bloody sorry for the NEXT staff.

My sil is one such - she's hoping to be on the later shift

Oh I think I know why Next do this.....

DH used to work on their distribuition contract (a few years ago so sorry if out of date info), when Next ran sales they used to aprk a wagon up close by with allthe usual stock in to maximise store space: that mean wagons had to be arranged in advance for availability, as clearly there would notnormally be a wagon per store in operation.

I bet it's a alot easier to allocate X extra wagons at that time of year!.

From a purely personal perpective,I am glad they are doing it that day as it means Mum'sNExt cravings willcease before she reaches us (normally we have totrek her around them, she comes up on the 27th).

I've done retail and restaurants over xmas/NYE period. I didn't particularly mind as I don't celebrate xmas. One year I worked on the day in the restaurant, got triple pay and a free meal

The run-up to xmas in a shop is a nightmare. People literally go insane. I had one woman screaming at me because my (free) gift wrapping was not "magical" enough (do it yourself then you lazy bint). One xmas eve there was a queue outside the store HALF AN HOUR before it even opened, and literally within 2 minutes of the shop opening there was a queue for the tills all the way around the shop. I think people weren't event thinking about what they were buying, but just grabbing any old thing off the shelf.

"What about the people who work over Christmas day?"

I previously worked in hospitality, I am now a police officer and I took on both those careers knowing full well that part of the job was working at Christmas and New Year. Just because I have worked Christmas for 14 years in a row doesn't mean that I think people that work in retail should be expected to work.

Most of their sale stock seems to have come from their catalogue rather than being existing shop stock anyway - and considering the Next Directory costs about £6 or something, so doesn't cost them anything to produce, I do wonder if perhaps the only real point of the catalogue is to enable them to get round the regulations regarding sales (28 days sold at the higher price in the last 12 weeks or something) so that they can pile it high in the highly-publicised 'sale'.

'TBH, I think that Sunday opening hours for stores has been the death of family and rest time.'

Absolutely.

Retail workers should get the chance to have two consecutive days off once a year. The country wouldn't grind to a halt.

Interesting all the different opinions. Understand that we need some people in 'life or death' jobs to work Christmas Day / Boxing Day, but there is really no need to have shops open after closing for just one day. As others have said, Boxing Day is not even a bank holiday, so anyone getting up at the crack of dawn to go to work in a shop will not get a penny extra.

I posted this because I was in Next this morning buying a shirt for my DS to wear to his school dance. The young chap who served me was so polite and didn't even grimace when I asked when the sale started.

Perhaps the young man who served you was aMuslim or Jewish,and doesn't give a rat's arse about Christmas?

I know that many people would prefer to be at home, but in all truth, this year in aprticualrl I reckon most retail staff are just thanking tehir lucky stars that they didn't opt for Woolies or Borders and have an actual job to go to.

Wow, this is so interesting for me. I thought I might get shot to flames for suggesting people might not have the right to work on Sundays and Bank Holidays, but apparently not.....maybe if you could all write in to my bosses and the main CEOs at the big chains we could all have a well deserved rest at times!!!

yanbu. Most staff won't get double pay, where I work doesn't pay extra for bank hols / public holidays. I would never shop on Boxing day. And thankfully my work rota means I'm not there on boxing day this year.

I agree really, retail staff shouldn't have to work on Boxing Day. Was thinking about this and tbh, clothes shopping can wait til 27th or 28th so that folk can spend quality time with their families.

I for one couldn't give a rat's arse if I never see a shop again, far less waste time queuing for a sale on Boxing Day morning, like a load of sheep. Why are people so consumer-obsessed?

I will happilly boycott Next for always, except I have some vouchers...

i will be going in 3 days later, as i hate queueing for ages for an item i most probably won't wear. a friend of mine used to work in next and told me that they restock again around that time.

I've no sympathy with the unsympathetic. Surely it must be possible to stay out of the fucking shops for two whole days of the year? Surely it can't be unreasonable to allow retail staff those two days off? Especially given the lunacy that will have been their lot in the weeks leading up to Christmas! Right now, reports reach me of queues tailing back a couple of miles to get into the local Tesco. What the blitherin' heck do these people need to buy? It's Christmas Day, not the Siege of Leningrad that needs provisioning for. So, with respect, anyone who seriously thinks that shopping is the best way of spending Boxing Day must have the tiniest of lives!

I am delighted to see an increasing number of shops staying shut on Boxing Day round here and hope the trend continues.

I hate their catalogue. Why is it sooo much bigger than everyone elses? It's a massive brick! The thing is so heavy it's a health hazard. I also wonder if they use recycled paper for it? I put in my recycling bin but the collectors take out all the other paper stuff and leave it behind. Honestly, it doesn't need to be that thick. It doesn't make the clothes any better IMO

Shops should be closed on Boxing Day it is a holiday and family day. Emergency services etc have to work; no one needs shops-they are just greedy. I utterly refuse to go shopping on that day-whatever the bargain.

I think that the shops should close early on Christmas Eve as well and not reopen till the Monday or Tuesday, thus giving most retail staff a nice well deserved break.

I belive that in most European countries shops close at 12pm on Christmas Eve and reopen on the Monday.

Feel very sorry for all the retail staff that will get home late on Christmas Eve and have to be up early on Boxing day.

YANBU at all. It's bad for the staff - and who, this year, in this economic climate, has any real choice about not sticking with their job? And as has been said, I dislike the idea that the best possible way we should all be spending our holiday time is not enjoying the company of our families or friends, but getting up at the crack of dawn to spend more money in the shops. So unhealthy for everyone concerned. And the clothing in the Next sale is crap anyway!

Plus, I hate Next for having a deadline date by which you have to use their gift vouchers (who else does this? No shops I can think of) as well as their catalogue you have to pay for.

YANBU - I was actually quite pleased to see that our local Morrisons is closed on Boxing Day as well as Christmas.

I once worked over Christmas - night shift on Christmas day - so no booze that day , was horrible, I got 2 1/2hrs at time and a half - then the morning of boxing day was "normal" (minimum wage) pay.

Is shite - but it was essential (care home), opening a shop is essential for no-one.