Today was Boxing Day, apparently a day when everyone and his dog decides to go shopping, because having a single day of the year when you can’t go shopping is apparently too much for some people to deal with.
While I certainly don’t begrudge people the business they have brought my place of work over the festive period, since they keep me in a job for the time being, I do find myself a little bewildered at the eagerness to get right back out into an absolutely rammed town centre and do something it’s possible to do almost every single other day of the year.
I guess it’s the promise of “sales” that has people enraptured with the idea of immediate post-Christmas shopping: the prospect of being able to pick up a bargain with any money and/or vouchers that came their way to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of our Lord, but looking around town today I can’t honestly say that I saw anything I’d particularly regard as a “bargain”. Sure, some stuff was maybe a little bit cheaper than it is usually, but we’re talking a reduction of like 20-25% at most in many places, which doesn’t amount to all that much.
Mostly the thing that bewilders me about immediate post-Christmas shopping is the fact that people are willingly giving up time where it’s absolutely fine — even encouraged — to slob around at home doing nothing of any consequence save for eating, drinking and playing with toys, and instead spending money they probably don’t really have on things they’re not sure they want, perhaps for people they don’t really like.
Oh well. As I say, I certainly don’t begrudge these people their choices, since the amount of money we took today — a lot of it cash, too, making for some impressive wads in the tills — is proof enough that online hasn’t quite killed the high street just yet, and it’s keeping me in employment for the moment, and hopefully for a bit longer after the holiday season is officially over. That last bit remains to be seen, so fingers crossed.
As for me, though, I don’t plan on doing any shopping anywhere other than Steam over the next few days, and I don’t have to get off the sofa to do that. I have two days off now, so I will most certainly be doing as little as possible over the course of the next 48 hours to ensure I’m rested, relaxed and ready for action as we creep towards the new year.
I hope you all had a thoroughly pleasant Christmas, and that you’re having the chance to enjoy at least a bit of a rest over the holiday period.
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