The spirit of Christmas ... shopping

The Boxing day sales

Christmas is often seen as a time for the family to get together and for many its a religious celebration. In recent years however, the opportunity for some people to relax and enjoy Christmas day and the following day 'Boxing Day' has been lost. Anybody who works for a big store in the UK  knows this.

Unlike in Poland, all the major shops, supermarkets and shopping centres are open for business. Many retailers open very early (typically 5 am or even earlier) and offer special deals to attract people to their stores.

Click on the picture above to see a video of what it's actually like!

Quite often there are long queues that form early on the morning of 26th December, hours before shops even open. Once inside, the shoppers often rush and grab, as many stores have a limited quantity of heavily discounted items. Because of the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, many choose to stay home and avoid the hectic shopping experience. The local media often cover the event, mentioning how early the shoppers began queueing up, providing video of shoppers standing in line and later leaving with their purchased items.

The Boxing Day sales have the potential for customer stampedes and injuries. As a result, many retailers have implemented practices aimed at controlling large numbers of shoppers, most whom are typically irate due to the cold weather, and anxious for bargains. They may limit entrances, restrict the number of customers in a store at a time and provide tickets to people at the head of the line to guarantee them a hot ticket item.

Not only do the shops open so early the day after Christmas - many of them offer special online offers on Christmas day! The article below shows that last Christmas day people in the UK spent 102 million pounds shopping on the internet:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7821139.stm

What do you think about this? The items for classroom discussion this week are:

Is it unfair on the people who work in shops to have to go to bed so early on Christmas day and then work on Boxing day?

Would you queue at 4 oclock in the morning outside in the cold in order to find a bargain or two?

Could you leave your family or friends alone for a while on Christmas day so you could do some shopping on the internet?

Do you think these crazy boxing day sales will happen in Poland in the future?

See you soon,

Greg