On my BBC News App I read that Members of Parliament are to debate calls for shops to be banned from opening on Boxing Day, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, after an online e-petition attracted more than 138,000 signatures. Labour MP Helen Jones will lead the debate in Westminster Hall. It will not involve a vote and so cannot enforce a change in the law, but it is a chance for MPs to discover whether Boxing Day trading is an issue with much support in Parliament.
Currently there are no controls on trading hours on Boxing Day unless it falls on a Sunday. Campaigners say that shop workers need more rest and the chance to be with their families at Christmas. The Christmas Day Trading Act prohibits shops larger than 280 square metres from opening on 25th December, but as yet there are no regulations for Boxing Day, a day when many sales begin.
When I was a child no shops opened on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, or on Sundays either. Sales started on 1st January, aptly named ‘The January Sales’. Now the sales are starting earlier and earlier.
I totally agree that shop assistants should not be forced to work on Boxing Day. Granted, many of these workers may belong to other religions and therefore do not celebrate Christmas at all, but for the ones that do celebrate it, they should have the choice whether they want to work or want to spend Boxing Day with their families. People will still flock to the sales a day later, and so what’s wrong with that?
Do you think that shops should open on Boxing Day? Is there a need for it?
No, they definitely shouldn’t. It used to ruin Christmas for me when I worked in retail.
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I agree. There is no need for it.
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I’m not sure about this. Yes, I remember the same from my childhood but times have changed a lot. Nowadays, if you choose to work in retail Boxing Day opening is part of the territory. It is a service industry, like many others: pubs, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, petrol stations, public transport, taxis as examples. Could you really expect all of those to be closed on Boxing Day? I don’t think I could, and can’t see retail as being different from them, sorry.
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Hi Clive. Your comment is important as it gives a different viewpoint. However, just taking shops into consideration, I think we could all buy what we need on the run up to Christmas Day. Just sayin’….
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I think the poor sales assistants need a break. We have plenty of other shopping days!
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Of course! I can’t see how it’s going to hurt to close the shops for 2 days.
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I would go further and ask, in response to Clive, why should any of those services operate on Boxing Day? I am old enough to remember ‘half-day closing’. Shop workers worked five and a half days. That included all day Saturday so the business community in each town designated one of the weekdays as the one on which all shops would close for the afternoon. In Hereford it was Thursday – chosen I guess as a well deserved rest after Wednesday which, as market day, was the busiest day of the week. Ah! Such quaint traditions. I think Boxing Day is one we ought to keep alive.
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Some of the small shops and sub post offices in my part of Suffolk still close on a Wednesday afternoon, as Wednesday is market day here too. We know not to go to the local shop on a Wednesday afternoon!
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No they should not. And I miss the peaceful days when shops were closed on Sunday too. They can run the sales the day after, and start them through internet only on Dec. 26th. 🙂
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Too right!
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