Boxing Day vs. Sunday Shopping

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/11/2010 (5598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province announced recently that it would allow retailers to set their own hours on Boxing Day, bowing to pressure that had been building for at least a year.

You see, Christmas falls on a Saturday this year, and retailers were complaining that they were going to miss out on that big shopping day, the "Saturday before Christmas." And then, because Boxing Day falls on a Sunday, they were going to be forced to only open for six hours on Boxing Day, causing a one-two punch that would no doubt have sent all the Wal-Marts in the world into immediate bankruptcy.

Look, I have sympathy for struggling small-business owners, but here’s my contrarian view: I know an awful lot more non-business-owners, and a lot of them are saddled with debt.

Every dollar that is spent on Boxing Day adds to the profits of a retailer — but it’s also taken from someone’s savings.

And let’s be honest with ourselves — not a single penny of Boxing Day spending is anything but discretionary. You’re lining up with thousands of others to buy things you don’t need, just because they’re marked down. No one — I will bet money on this — no one is trudging through the snow buying flour because they have no other way to feed their kids.

Closing on Boxing Day would be weird — but the world wouldn’t end. All the magic of Christmas will still happen.

I have zero doubt that Christmas morning will be full of wide-eyed kids tearing the wrapping off of shiny new baubles — and that this will happen even if there’s no final Saturday just before Christmas for shopping.

I also have no doubt that a great many people are going to groan heavily when faced with their January credit card bills. Including me.

So why is a retailer’s bottom line more important than mine?

And guess what, retailers? I make a certain amount of money every year. I try to save about 10 per cent of it, which means that, every single year, I spend about 90 per cent of what I make. If I don’t spend it on Boxing Day, you can be assured that I’ll probably see that extra money in my bank account and spend it on New Year’s Eve.

It wasn’t all that long ago that, if you owned a store, you had to be closed — fully closed — every Sunday. Since the passage of Sunday shopping laws, you greedy retailers have gained 52 additional profit-making days every single year. Basically, you’re open for two months a year longer than you used to be.

It’s seriously going to kill you to only open for six hours this one Boxing Day?

Tell you what — you want to open? Let your employees vote on it. Secret ballot, so they don’t feel pressured.

Some people need the money and are glad to work. Others maybe will be desperate to escape their families by that point. So I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of stores would still open.

But not all of them. And only the ones where people felt like actually working.

Not that it matters — I won’t be shopping. After all, haven’t people heard? It’s "Boxing Week" now.