More than 350,000 people have signed petitions urging the British government to mandate all shops close on the day after Christmas, which is Britain’s version of Black Friday.
The two petitions have earned 350,000 signatures combined garnering the Parliament’s attention. The official British government petition page has 133,000 signatures as of Thursday, while a petition on Change.org has 218,000 signatures.
Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, is a British holiday dating back to the early 1800s when servants and tradesmen would receive gifts known as a “Christmas box” from their employers. Today, Boxing Day resembles America’s Black Friday.
The Christmas Day Trading Act of 2004 prevents larger retailers from opening on Christmas Day, but advocates of a lengthened ban argue that one day is not enough time for workers to spend with their families.
“Shops, especially supermarkets, do not need to open on Boxing Day,” the petition on Change.org reads. “Most retail workers are on the go up to Christmas Eve, then back on Boxing Day. Sometimes they have no choice,” the petition continues. The petition is addressed the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Theresa May.
“Let’s get back to the way it was,” the petition asserts, alluding to 40 years ago when shops were sometimes closed for an entire week during the Christmas season.
The petition on the government’s website reads: “Christmas is a family time, the one day is not enough time to see two sides of families, retail workers work extremely hard during the Christmas run up and only get the one day.”
“Boxing Day has for years been a popular shopping day as customers take advantage of the Christmas sales, and retailers will respond accordingly to cater for customer demand,” the British Retail Consortium said. “Most retailers offer flexible shift patterns to ensure time off is distributed fairly among those who don’t wish to work throughout the holiday period,” the pro-business group asserted.
The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) told the Express it was unlikely that the British government would promote legislation that mandated all shops to remain close on Boxing Day.
The Black Friday trend is gaining steam across the pond, as British retailers hope to convince British shoppers to mirror American consumers by turning the day after Thanksgiving into a frenetic day of bargain shopping.
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