Why would stores being closed help make Christmas a more 'special time', whatever that means? People who don't celebrate Christmas or aren't lucky enough to have anyone to celebrate with aren't going to magically be overcome with Christmas spirit simply because they are forced to stay at home and watch rubbish TV rather than distract themselves with a bit of shopping or whatever.

I hate shopping myself, but others take pleasure in it. Do you also have a problem with bars, restaurants, cinemas, theatres etc being open on Boxing Day, with staff forced to work? No more Boxing Day panto for the kids? Or is it just activities that you don't enjoy yourself and that don't fit in with your own moral spectrum that you want banned?

But people enjoy doing things like panto and the Christmas spirit in bars and restaurants is a totally different thing to a load of, angry shoppers charging into a store, snatching at pieces of tat and creating a scene similar to something off the Walking Dead. It's horrible for the staff to be working in these places and they have to get up really early where pubs etc don't open till 12:00.I am all for freedom of choice and civil liberties but these have to balance with workers welfare too.

Maybe so. But I was questioning the logic behind the argument that shops should close because Christmas is a 'special time' and therefore people should only being doing special, twinkly, tinselly, Christmassy, love and joy to all type things.

Maybe self help groups could be set up across the country for those addicted to shopping. Shoppers Anonymous.

I worked in retail when I was at Uni. Next incase you're wondering. The shopping centre would close at 6pm on Christmas Eve, but we were often in until 8-9pm setting up for the sale that started on Boxing Day or the 27th. Then some of us in again at 4am ready to open the doors at 5am for a load of maniacs to come and get £5 off some tshirt.

People are bonkers, absolutely nuts.

Some of the forum members on here seem to want people to have as shit a life as possible don't they?

Was Next anything like House of Fraser? When I worked there, we were sent over to the Warehouse to unload boxes of tat from years gone past and that is mainly what was offered in sales. The new stuff already in the shop was only ever marginally reduced if at all. I doubt many shoppers realised that the stuff they were manically buying was years old stuff that had been dusted off. Bargains my arse. Really not worth getting up at 5 am for.

I think the retailers must have a right good laugh at some of these fools that will buy any old tat with a reduced sticker on it, even though it was probably on the sale rack a few months previous and no one was interested in it

It depends on what people define as shit. If people wish to work over Christmas then surely they should be respected.

The issue is whether or not shops should be forced to close.

It's everyone's business if consumerism is becoming a dominant force in society, negatively affecting workers, family time and ultimately communities.

Even if the shops are closed, there's still scope for people to work Boxing Day, setting up the sale for the 27th.

That would have a knock-on effect of allowing staff to go home at a normal time on Christmas Eve.

That's how I remember it from years ago. Small family run corner shops would open for a few hours on Boxing Day so people could get milk, a box of chocolates to bring to Auntie Ivy's and so on; but the big supermarkets, fashion shops, shopping centres etc were closed for at least two days after Christmas.
People tended to spend those days visiting relatives or having them over for a meal, or inviting the neighbours in. It was a really quiet lull after all the hectic build up to Christmas. Nowadays, some people seem to be like Duracell bunnies. They're almost afraid to just stop running and relax for a few days. Sad!

Very much so. I was at Next for 2 years and every sale you saw that 50% of the stock was ancient, like a few years old. A lot of the clothes blended into one to me (I worked on ladieswear ) but there were some distinct looking clothes that you recognised from seasons gone by. We had a warehouse a few miles away and I'd often go up there and sort stock for the sale (add price tags etc.) Then on Christmas eve, that would be sent over to the store and popped out for the sale.

If I was to pluck a rough figure out of the air, maybe 20% of what had been getting sold at full price just before Christmas would be in the sale. And most of that would be the Christmas gift sets/gadgets that we'd sell.

You'd see the same faces at the sale (end of season/mid season) and it baffled me that they never clicked on that it was the same stuff that they saw 3 months previously at the sale.

Yes - but the attitudes of some on here is "they knew what they were getting into" "get another job" "some of us like to shop on Boxing Day" etc.

God forbid that people who are forced into retail due to circumstances get a couple of days off over Christmas.

I notice that Aldi, Lidl and John Lewis will be closed. Since they are among the most successful ones on the high st. it just shows that opening Boxing Day does not make your business a winner.

That's the thing isn't it. A lot of retail staff are mums returning to work, those are the jobs available to them.

I get that. I'm not saying abolish retail work - my point is that people who work in retail are forced to work bonkers hours over Christmas. This hasn't always been the norm - it's a fairly recent thing.

I was agreeing with you, it's not necessary for retail staff to work silly hours. I was just pointing out to those that say, get another job etc that retail is often the only type of work available.

No, they don't.

Quite a bold statement without a relevant poll...

It would certainly seem that way looking at some of the replies to those who suggest that retail workers shouldn't have to work over this time of year. Pretty much a canvas of "tough luck minimum wage suckers".

I think staff should be paid extra for working Boxing Day - I imagine lots will then volunteer to work. I work 9 - 5 Monday to Friday - but I'm increasingly doing overtime at weekends because of the workload. I get time and a half for my troubles which makes it worthwhile to me.

they still have the choice as to which jobs they want to accept. they aren't forced to work in retail



that's not necesarily true. howeve if you read what myself and others have already pointed out, they may spend that money online or with other businesses, so the stores that don't open may lose business which in turn means the staff may suffer a loss of addition hours or jobs in addition to the lose of hours they may lose as a result of the store not opening on xmas day and boxing day

My mother was "Aunty Ivy" to many of my cousins. Which one was you?

what you have posted is nonsense. if you bothered reading what people have posted prior to this you would perhaps understand why

if stores are closed on xmas day and boxing day that's 2 days where people may shop online at other businesses such as amazon, who don't have brick and morter stores

brick and morter stores are closing down because they are losing business to ownline only retailers, so the more they close for holidays etc, the more business they lose. xmas day and boxing day are two of the biggest days of retail take out of the year, so closing on boxing day is financial madness