The Joy of Working in Retail Over the Christmas Period
I mainly work part-time in a retail store to help fund my way through university, but during the Christmas holidays it completely takes over my life. The extension of store hours and introduction of Christmas tunes – cue Mariah Carey – marks the beginning of absolute chaos for retail workers. Shops get busier and busier in the lead up to Christmas with stressed, last minute shoppers frantically searching for the perfect gift, before deciding to just go with a gift card. The abundance of customers doesn’t leave much time to do other jobs around the store, so there always seems to be stuff lying around. Everywhere!
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It quickly becomes second nature to slap a fake smile on your face to greet endless customers, even those who stroll into the store three minutes before closing. And it becomes the norm to spend the days leading up to Christmas pricing item after item in preparation for the upcoming sale.  However, it’s not all bad. Working in a shop on Christmas Eve brings retail workers together. A merry atmosphere fuelled by the anticipation of Christmas day, pushes everyone to get their work done so they can get home early to enjoy the festivities with their families.Â
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This feeling will quickly be shattered for many though when their alarms go off in the early hours of Boxing Day, marking the end of Christmas and the start of another stressful workday filled with customers in search of bargains.Â
Many have spoken out this year though, in belief that all shops should remain closed on Boxing Day. An online petition launched at the beginning of November in support of this, it now has over 200,000 signatures. Ian Lapworth started the petition because he believed that Christmas was becoming too commercialised, and that people should be spending more time making memories with their loved ones, rather than spending money.
I’m sure most retail workers would rather be enjoying the festive period at home with their families and starting the post-Christmas sales a day later, it wouldn’t make a great difference to thousands of keen sale shoppers across the country. Undoubtedly, retailers will make a great profit during their boxing day sales, so they could suffer a loss by closing an extra day each year. Some have argued that it’s not just retail workers who have to work so much over the Christmas break, but also the likes of doctors and nurses. Although, it could be considered insulting to medical professionals to compare their work to selling reduced items to customers in the early hours of Boxing Day.Â
At this moment in time, it does not seem likely that the petition will make an impact, especially since a similar attempt last year resulted in the Government stating that they did not believe it was their place to tell shops how to run. So it looks like the Christmas festivities will be cut short for many, once again.  Â
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