Christmas day is the one day of the year that Australians expect to be free of having to go to work. The only shops open for business are usually a few twenty-four hour petrol stations and the odd small Mum and Pop store The main shopping centres are locked down tightly and it is the one day of the year that no newspapers publish.
The biggest sale day of the year usually is the Boxing Day sales. By tradition, crowds await the opening hour and massive discounts are to be had as the stores clear away unsold Christmas merchandise. Unfortunately, very selective laws are in place to restrict Boxing Day openings in Sydney to the CBD and Eastern suburbs. There is a complete ban on Boxing Day trading in Campbelltown, Parramatta and Penrith - but that is about to change.
In the next few days, NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian will announce a uniform state code that will allow Boxing Day shopping on an unrestricted basis. Gone will be the farce that demands shop close in some districts, but permits opening in others on the basis that it is deemed a " tourist centre " and special conditions apply.
This opening mix has seriously disadvantaged stores forced to stay closed on Boxing Day. They claim that opening their doors a day later is a case of " no second prize ". The shoppers in their district have moved to where the shops are open - and the money is spent and no longer available for what they are offering - a day later than the stores who won the lucky lottery of trading rights on Boxing Day.
They do have a point. This ban is artificial and hard to justify, but it does mean that a lot of people are going to be asked to work on Christmas day to get the merchandise in place and the tickets on the right items so that the surging crowds can find those bargains when the doors open on the day after Christmas.
Traditionally, most stores trade right up until Christmas eve to extract the maximum sales dollar from the festive season. It stands to reason that someone has to clear away this Christmas clutter, move stock and get the store ready for this big sales assault on Boxing day. There is every expectation that store management will call for volunteers from their employees to carry out that task - and in this age of job insecurity - that is a request that could be dangerous to refuse.
Ensuring that shop staff actually got a work free Christmas day was the reason for banning Boxing day sales in the first place. The thinking was that Boxing day was the lesser holiday in the Christmas break. It was usual for the executive staff of a store to go to work to prepare for the sale and bring in selected employees to help - who would be paid a premium for working on a rostered holiday. Then - all the stores would reopen on the following day and the sales opportunities would be equally shared.
One of the problems this legislative change will bring - is cumulative action. Boxing day is a national holiday in Australia and in the past these Boxing day sales have been restricted to the handful of big department stores. The supermarkets open on the day after Christmas, but the vast majority of offices and many lesser stores treat the day as a holiday. It is highly likely that widening Boxing day trading will influence " middling " size retailers to join the throng and forego this traditional holiday.
Our world has moved a long way from that old nine to five economy that existed over half a century ago. Few would wish to return to the days when the banks opened at ten in the morning and closed at three in the afternoon - on the dot ! When cinemas and pubs were closed on Sundays - and the weekends were dreary by the standards of today.
Hopefully, this legislation will not result in Christmas day and Boxing day becoming just another working day submerged in culture of twenty-four hour trading.
No comments:
Post a Comment