A few years ago I worked at a major UK supermarket, we'll codename it ASDA as that was what it was called. ASDA used to be closed only four days a year, Christmas Day; Boxing Day*; New Years Day, and Easter Sunday. Well now it seems all the major supermarkets (except our local Morrisons) are now opening on Boxing Day, so the workers have one less holiday day at Christmas, and that it sad.
Christmas serves an important function in our society. Now I am big time atheist, Jesus was no more the son of God, as Arthur Askey was. The Nativity may be as factually valid as an episode of Buck Rogers, but that doesn't mean we should just do away with it. Now I'm a cynical misanthrope who lives in a dirty bin lid and swears incoherently at passers by, and even I manage to capture some of the Christmas spirit, you'd have to either be very miserable or currently Tyrone of Coronation Street not to even let a little of the festive spirit rub off. A good natured affirmative group celebration like Christmas is good for us all, a time to realise life isn't all work and practical stuff, that human existence should be life affirming. And getting presents is a bonus too! In short Christmas is everything the ultra free market isn't.
A young woman on Facebook has fallen foul of this extra opening day. And she was understandably put out. It just seems wrong opening the supermarkets on Boxing day, and you got that sense from her comments. I mean come on! Will these mega companies really go bust if they allow their staff (who often have young families, who are now deprived of the company a loved one at Christmas) two days off at Christmas. This is precisely what bugs me about ultra free market advocates (who incidentally often seem pretty protected from the arse end of this kind of society.) reasoning. It may generate wealth**, but it doesn't generate human wealth so to speak. These aren't inanimate units of production, but human workers with desires and lives and families, and a desire for emotional comforts and the comforts of home and hearth and whatever.*** That is perhaps why I have a soft spot for Christmas. It stands as a long standing bulwark against the free market fundamentalism that may have made us richer but not happier. But will the day itself come under threat? I have heard (but have no verification) that some US superstores do open for a few hours on the 25th now. Bugger.
*Pretty much every year I was there there were rumours that this was the year they'd take the plunge and open Boxing Day.
**No I'm not a communist by the way. The free market has its uses, but should not be a societal end in itself. To quote David Starkey "It remains true as always, people are motivated by more than just market forces."
** It has been argued that some people are so lonely at Christmas that they would welcome them all being open on the day as they would at least have a shop assistant to speak to that day. This always breaks my bloody heart when I hear it. Perhaps we should try to change the factors that allow people to become this cut off as an all year round project, rather than making it a reason to open stores on Christmas Day.
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