Boxing Day Sales

[Kane.Elson]

I know this may sound pretty stupid but I don't understand the principle of the boxing day sale, so just a few questions to clear it all up.

1. Why do stores discount things for "Post Christmas Sales"?
2. What kind of things are Discounted? I heard it was mainly old and refurbished stock...
3. I can safely assume apple doesn't have one but I just had a look at a couple of other online computer stores and they had no mention of any, so is it only really department stores that have them ?

Yeah, I am not very wise on the ways of shopping, and it's a bit late now being almost midday but I was just curious as to how it all works. Mainly the first point.

 

[BoyBach]

Because traditionally there is a slump in business after Christmas, so most shops reduce the price of the older stock to clear, thus making way for newer stock.

But it's mainly to boost their post-Christmas figures.

 

[Kane.Elson]

Yeah I was going to say, is it basically to get rid of any stop they didn't get a chance to flog off for christmas.
Another thing, what kind of discounts do they give ?

I have no intention of thinking about heading down now (all the good stuff is probably gone anyway), maybe next year.

 

[billyboy]

Originally Boxing Day was a time for people to clear away all the boxes and wrapping from Xmas. Now on Boxing Day, people clear boxes out of stores and fill their homes back up with yet more crap

 

[Macky-Mac]

Originally Boxing Day was a time for people to clear away all the boxes and wrapping from Xmas. ....

well....not really

from wikipedia about "Boxing Day";

There are disparate theories as to the origins of the term. The more common stories include:

-It was the day when people would give a present or Christmas 'box' to those who have worked for them throughout the year. This is still done in Britain for postmen and paper-boys - though now the 'box' is usually given before Christmas, not after.

-In feudal times, Christmas was a reason for a gathering of extended families. All the serfs would gather their families in the manor of their lord, which made it easier for the lord of the estate to hand out annual stipends to the serfs. After all the Christmas parties on 26 December, the lord of the estate would give practical goods such as cloth, grains, and tools to the serfs who lived on his land. Each family would get a box full of such goods the day after Christmas. Under this explanation, there was nothing voluntary about this transaction; the lord of the manor was obliged to supply these goods. Because of the boxes being given out, the day was called Boxing Day.

-In England many years ago, it was common practice for the servants to carry boxes to their employers when they arrived for their day's work on the day after Christmas. Their employers would then put coins in the boxes as special end-of-year gifts. This can be compared with the modern day concept of Christmas bonuses. The servants carried boxes for the coins, hence the name Boxing Day.

-In churches, it was traditional to open the church's donation box on Christmas Day, and the money in the donation box was to be distributed to the poorer or lower class citizens on the next day. In this case, the "box" in "Boxing Day" comes from that lockbox in which the donations were left.

-Boxing Day was the day when the wren, the king of birds,[3] was captured and put in a box and introduced to each household in the village when he would be asked for a successful year and a good harvest. See Frazer's Golden Bough.

-Because the staff had to work on such an important day as Christmas Day by serving the master of the house and their family, they were given the following day off. Since being kept away from their own families to work on a traditional religious holiday and not being able to celebrate Christmas Dinner, the customary benefit was to "box" up the leftover food from Christmas Day and send it away with the servants and their families. Hence the "boxing" of food became "Boxing Day".