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?

YANBU. Our local House of Fraser is also opening on Boxing Day.

I've worked Christmas Day (catering) and it was a blast. NYE is also fun. Difference between catering and retail imo is that there's a point to going to a restuarant on Christmas Day and the staff generally have a good time, whereas there is no point whatsoever in going shopping for half price fur gilets or unpleasantly sloganned t-shirts on Boxing Day and the staff have a shite time.

What kind of sad fucker wants to go clothes shopping at 7am any day of the year let alone Boxing day?

think argos do the expiry date thing on vouchers too - i always wondered why, cos money wears out?

YANBU. I've never found anything good inthe next sale and it is a miserable experience - don't understand why people would want to get up early to go to it. Poor staff.

ever since i spent my student years being miserable in retail jobs I feel very pleased when I see shops closed at xmas and on boxing day.

Used to work at House of Fraser.

Come 4/4.30pm on Christmas eve, after the sheer bloody mayhem of the run up to Christmas, the store would close, the crappy christmas music would go off (thank god) and then - then - we would have to work until every sale item (were hundreds of them) had been 'red penned' with its sale price, re-ticketed, re-positioned with sale stock (involved much hevy lifting and shoving), and then, hung on a different hanger, god, the list was endless.

You'd be lucky to get out at 6pm - oh yes, limited bus service.

No extra money, just the bare minimum wage.

Then you'd have to be back at the crack of dawn at boxing day. Limited bus service again. Minimum wage.

No students working here, just grown ups with families.

Yes, you take the job that you absolutely have to to pay the bills, but for mimimum wage? It was shit for me and is shit for those that do it.

And, we were told: 'keep smiling'!

why anyone would get out of bed at the crack of dawn to buy a shit top that used to be £29.99 and is now £19.99 but remains totally shit, completely escapes me.

Heres an idea.
Why don't those who really must go just roll up around ten. Then everyone gets a lie in.
Especially the poor bloody staff

They have done this for years in Scotland.

Opened at 5 am one year when I was working in Aberdeen. We thought it was bad enough starting at 9.

I NEVER go on Boxing Day having had to work it most of my adult life. Can't people stay away form the shops for 2 days. I'm not kidding - I used to look at them with utter disgust. Bastards.
Not that I'm bitter.

So refreshing to see how many of you are against opening on 26th... my store is part of a chain of around 30, those of us unfortunate to be in shopping centres with the likes of Next have to open on 26th, those in town centres don't open. What a load of old cobblers! I'm not pleased, I haven't had a day off with my husband for 4 weeks (he works in retail too, but he gets 3 days closed at Christmas as they aren't a "sale" sort of company), I get Christmas day off,then work 26th for no extra pay and no day in lieu.
I am of the opinion, like others on here, that Sunday trading is the scourge of family life...remember when there was NOTHING to do on a Sunday except lunch with the family??? I too started in retail when ludicrous opening hours just weren't the norm and companies still held their employees with a degree of respect. You don't know "what you're letting yourself in for" when you take on a retail job because your contract simply wiffles on about "the needs of the business" and the decision to open on holiday days is usually taken a few weeks out, not set in stone. Wrong, all wrong.

I wish that we all voted with our feet and didn't go-it would then stop.

I'm a bit to think that I never appreciated the fact that the staff have to spend exrta time on Christmas Eve getting the sale stuff ready (when I worked in SAinsbury's we had people for that sort of thing ).

Having read this thread I will not go shopping on 26th ven though I wasn't planning to and wll strongly discourage any other family/ friends from doing so.

I went last year at 5am, i won't be going this year but i will be doing some shopping online. The quality of Next clothes is not what it used to be, i only buy childrens clothes (mainly for dd2 to wear to nursery) as i can pick up tops for the dd's for 2 pound+ (cheep enough for them to get paint on at nursery and school).

Boxing day should be spent at home with the family so no shopping for me.

I went in to town today and most of the shops had replaced Christmas stuff with sale stuff and suit cases

Depressing the fact that shops are all done with Christmas before Christmas.

I refuse to go out now until well after Christmas and would not go to the shops and sure as hell would not work over Christmas

I think everywhere should be closed.

What is wrong with people who feel the need to go shopping at 7am Boxing Day. Yes I know sale blah blah blah.
Also it puts me off buying anything knowing full well that it will be 1/2 price a few days later.

They can do what they want. I've got better things to do on Boxing day morning. Also they bring our all the crap that is unsold stock.

By pagwatch
why anyone would get out of bed at the crack of dawn to buy a shit top that used to be £29.99 and is now £19.99 but remains totally shit, completely escapes me

Lolol, how true, that sums up Next for me in a nutshell.

The clothes are crap and the people who queue up to go to the sales are morons. The only thing worth buying in Next are their skinny jeans and they are only £25 anyway.

Do you really have to pay £6 for the Next directory? Really?. Do people avctually do this voluntarily?

Christ.

Yes the catalogue actually costs you money. They roped me in once, the bloody things almost filled my little house up.

I have seen one at a friend's house, it looked like a volume of encyclopaedia brittanica. Didn't know you had to fork out money for what amounts to some marketing material.

There is another thread going on which is talking about Next VIPs - presumably the hezbolah splinter faction of Next devotees.

Christ it's a crappy shop just one up from Matalan, what's with teh excitement?

@ the Hezbolah splinter faction, GetOrf!

If people didn't shop on those days then they wouldn't open. But demand is there so they do open.

I wish that shops were shut on all bank holidays and sundays. We've gone consumer mad.

My poor friend is a manager of Peacocks, and they are open early doors on Boxing Day too...I mean come on, who has a sudden urge to shop in the Peacocks sale??
I do feel sorry for her, she's worked herself into the ground lately. Yes, her choice to work there and all that - but I still feel for her.

Do you know what, I've been thinking about this thread since posting on it the other day (and also thinking about my intense dislike of Next) and I don't think I'd even bother getting up and going to Next 7am on Boxing Day if they were giving their clothes away.

Also I think (and hope) that its only a matter of time before someone starts a massive campaign to boycott shops on Boxing Day to give retail staff a semi-decent holiday.

I think the whole 'staff have a choice thing' is a little patronising. In this economic climate, people are afraid to say 'no' to their employers.
I feel sorry for anyone whose idea of fun is queueing at 4am on Boxing Day for some crappy polyester summer sale rejects in a size too small.
And I feel even sorrier for anyone who works in retail.