Should shops be allowed to open on Boxing Day?

Should shops be allowed to open on Boxing Day?

  • Yes

    Votes: 23 34.8%

  • No

    Votes: 43 65.2%
  • Total voters
    66
cambsno

cambsno

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Yes
This is to be debated in Parliament after 100k people petitioned, so what to people on here think.

I would be strongly in favour of this - lets get Christmas back to being a special time for the family and not have people being forced back into work the day after. Sure, essential services need to be available but the country would not fall apart if Tesco or Next were closed an extra day. In the case of Next especially, having to be in at 5 or 6am is IMO dreadful.
 
Was going to vote yes but your points swayed it for me.
 
Depends on the person really, if you live alone and have no one visit you I suppose you are happy enough to work boxing day. I am in the position of being an ambulance paramedic, so if I am rostered I can end up working all the festive holidays.
 
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If you don't live alone and have the inlaws coming round you might be happy enough to work too.

Besides boxing day sales are an older tradition than christmas ;)
 
Don't have a problem with it personally. If you don't want to go out shopping, don't go out shopping.

Sure the big retailers may not see much impact from a shopping ban but think of the smaller retailers who benefit from all of that footfall. At the end of the day if the shops were shut cash would still end up in the big retailers online stores anyway.
 
Yes, shops should be allowed to open whenever they want to, although they shouldn't be allowed to force anyone to work the shifts. Same goes for Sunday trading - what's so special about it? If special trading laws are made for one of the Middle Eastern mythology based religions, the same should be done for all of them - Islam, Judaism, indeed any religion with a designated day of rest. If shops aren't allowed to open, why are bars? Why do the emergency services have to work?
 
Dave1 said:
+1

No one is forced to go out shopping.
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I think the point being made was that the shop workers are "forced" to go into work though. With a ban on trading, they get a chance to have an extra day off with family or whatever. I dont think anyone particularly gives a sh** about the shoppers not being able to go out.
 
Nod said:
Yes, shops should be allowed to open whenever they want to
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indeed, in this culture of 24/7 internet shopping it's essentially the high street stores that lose out in the long run if you start dictating forced closures.

whats better for towns, people sat at home bored or filling the shops generating tourism and business rates from occupied retail units.
 
Just the same as no one gives a sh** about the emergency services workers,nurses, doctors and all the other essential workers during the festive period, how many actually give it a second thought as they sit eating their xmas lunch.
 
DorsetDude said:
I think the point being made was that the shop workers are "forced" to go into work though
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they are? christmas cover in my experience was always an optional "whoever didn't do last year" kind of rotation.

edit: the applicable days would also be paid overtime and/or time in lieu if a bank holiday. so not exactly being screwed for doing it.
 
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Too many people want everything open and available all the time as long as they don't have to work s***ty hours.

Society is increasingly selfish, too much of I'm having a good time so f*** everyone else

they are? christmas cover in my experience was always an optional "whoever didn't do last year" kind of rotation.
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Did you retire in the 70's, these days its if you dont work we can soon find someone else who will
 
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For many years, I worked those s***ty hours over commercialmas and new year's eve, enabling people whose idea of fun was getting s***faced to do so (and clearing up after they'd had too much "fun"!) In one of the jobs there was a little extra pay for it but in the others, it was the luck of the draw and standard hourly rate.
 
Most folk are forced to work every day, most of us would not work if we were not forced to work to pay the bills.
 
I have never ever shopped on Boxing Day
Can't see the need. anyone can wait a day.....
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
I have never ever shopped on Boxing Day
Can't see the need. anyone can wait a day.....
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you get given some money for christmas, oh great I can go into town tomorrow to the local family run store and buy that thing I wanted.
oh no the shops are shut, I'll buy it on Amazon instead. free prime next day delivery trial too, why not.
family business loses out, goes under. store then remains empty and council loses business rates.
town deteriorates with boarded up units all over, people move out to a "better" area.

plenty of losers in that situation. perhaps a little worst case... :D
 
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Steep said:
If you don't live alone and have the inlaws coming round you might be happy enough to work too.

Besides boxing day sales are an older tradition than christmas ;)
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It was on "Boxing" day that tradesmen traditionally took Boxed gifts to their gentlemen customers.
 
DorsetDude said:
I think the point being made was that the shop workers are "forced" to go into work though. With a ban on trading, they get a chance to have an extra day off with family or whatever. I dont think anyone particularly gives a sh** about the shoppers not being able to go out.
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Leaving aside emergency workers, what about people who work in warehouses, how about the porters, receptionists, cooks, cleaners in hotels, restauarants and hospitals, staff at airports, railway staff, people who work in call centres, breakdown staff, football stadium staff, cinema staff etc, how long can that list be?

What's so special about shop staff that they can't work? Especially as most shops work on volunteers first, or a rota of people getting different days off.
 
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I'd also wager that a lot of people WANT to work those hours. Either through sheer need to pay the bills or want to get extra cash to spend on themselves (and the retail cycle goes on).
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
It was on "Boxing" day that tradesmen traditionally took Boxed gifts to their gentlemen customers.
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The more common theory (one of many), is that it's the tradesmen and service people that received the boxed gifts from the gentry.

Boxing day opening has been around for a rather long time now, so no one in retail should be shocked if asked to work.

There's a Co op here that's open all day Christmas day.
 
Doesn't matter if the shops open all the hours god sent, still only got the same amout of cash to spend.

Not about to get twice the amount of groceries, so apart from increased staff costs what's to gain?

Answer is nothing, but if one does the others feel obliged to follow, madness really and no wonder stress is on the increase
 
I not sure. I like the piece and quiet and most if the high street has an internet presence so they can compete with the online boys
 
neil_g said:
Don't have a problem with it personally. If you don't want to go out shopping, don't go out shopping.

Sure the big retailers may not see much impact from a shopping ban but think of the smaller retailers who benefit from all of that footfall. At the end of the day if the shops were shut cash would still end up in the big retailers online stores anyway.
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It's not really about if you want to go out shopping or not, it's about the 1000's of people that are forced to work just in case some people do want to go shopping.

I used to work in retail and many a time had to be at work at stupid O'Clock because the retailer want to open stupidly early with Boxing Day sales. Even though we had Christmas Day off you couldn't really enjoy it with a few drinks.

Edit. And now that I've read some of the other posts, no we weren't given the option. It was Boxing days
Sales and EVERYBODY was in.
 
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ecoleman said:
It's not really about if you want to go out shopping or not, it's about the 1000's of people that are forced to work just in case some people do want to go shopping.

I used to work in retail and many a time had to be at work at stupid O'Clock because the retailer want to open stupidly early with Boxing Day sales. Even though we had Christmas Day off you couldn't really enjoy it with a few drinks
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Which applies to the hundreds of thousands of other workers who have no choice about working that day.

I still haven't seen a valid reason why retail workers are any sort of special case...
 
Dave1 said:
Which applies to the hundreds of thousands of other workers who have no choice about working that day.

I still haven't seen a valid reason why retail workers are any sort of special case...
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I never said that retail workers were a special case, but retail is not an essential service.
 
Those people who think shop workers should work on a socially important public holiday should only expect shop worker's to work if they are insisting that they go to work on that day themselves.

Shop workers are not lower class people who should be at the beck and call of the more important people.
 
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Dave1 said:
Which applies to the hundreds of thousands of other workers who have no choice about working that day.

I still haven't seen a valid reason why retail workers are any sort of special case...
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Likewise I've not seen a valid reason why shoppers have a special need..

Some services have a genuine all-day all-week all-year need. Some don't. Retail doesn't.

You really can't see the difference between wanting to buy a cheap tv and the work of the care, medical and emergency services?
 
ecoleman said:
you couldn't really enjoy it with a few drinks.
.
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Really? You couldn't enjoy it without drinking?
That's a little bit sad.
 
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Presumably public transport now has to run for shoppers and staff, vicious circle of less leisure time for all to help the rich get wealthier.

Vote with your feet and wallets, no point opening if nobody goes, good old dollop of snow would be handy, day off for all then
 
viv1969 said:
Boxing day opening has been around for a rather long time now, so no one in retail should be shocked if asked to work.
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I agree, It's been over 37yrs since I left school and I'd say Boxing Day Sales have been around longer than that. If you don't want the risk of having to work over Christmas or any other bank holidays, don't choose a job where that is likely to be the case.
 
Yes they should be allowed, because we live in a democracy and have a free-market economy. Simple.

A different question is, "is it a bad thing?", and the answer is probably yes. It's pretty crap for workers (and arguably also for shoppers) that they are open, but that's our system at fault. Vote for different politicians if you don't like it, but don't vote Tory then moan about the shops being open!
 
tijuana taxi said:
Presumably public transport now has to run for shoppers and staff, vicious circle of less leisure time for all to help the rich get wealthier.

Vote with your feet and wallets, no point opening if nobody goes, good old dollop of snow would be handy, day off for all then
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You don't get less leisure time as you get time off in lieu.
 
No not a day off for all, no matter the weather some of us have to work.
 
neil_g said:
I'd also wager that a lot of people WANT to work those hours. Either through sheer need to pay the bills or want to get extra cash to spend on themselves (and the retail cycle goes on).
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There are also a lot of people who don't WANT to work these hours (myself included) I have been in retail for 26 years and it is only in the last 4 years that supermarkets have opened on boxing day. Most of us do not get any sort of extra payment for working bank holidays, it is just classed as a normal shift.
I quite understand that many people do have to work over Christmas but it is hardly a life or death situation if shops stay closed for an extra day.

On a personal note , as a baker for a well known supermarket I will have to start work at 4:00am boxing day morning which will probably mean that I will be in bed for 10:00pm Christmas day at the latest. We will probably throw away more bread than we sell . We open because all our competitors will be open and the company is terrified of losing a sale to them.

People buy far too much food at Christmas anyway so surely they can managed without buying more on boxing day.
 
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