They claimed to have been doing this for 20 years and to have formed a community hub and offered people “hugs and mince pies… “ To you and me that's a freebie worth 31p each - tax deductible so probably actually 25p if you claim the VAT back...
I wont name their establishment because firstly I don’t think they need any more publicity and secondly I don’t want to attack anyone personally .... they all seem very sincere people but...
Firstly, I asked the obvious question “Is it Legal?”
The Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004 (c 26) is an Act makes it illegal to open a retail establishment on Christmas Day unless your shop is smaller than 280 m^2 / 3,000 sq ft.
For those of you who for whom a square meters is hard to visualise, a Tennis Court is ~260m^2 (I would have done a football pitch to sound more working class but apparently they vary in size) ...
...and the floorspace of the average London double decker Routemaster bus is ~40m^2 if you count both decks…
Interestingly the 280 m^2 law only accounts for two dimensions so one could in theory have a shop as high as Nelson’s Column and supply the customers with very long ladders but for some reason no one has yet exploited this loophole but anyway...
I have to say the owners of the shop spun a good yarn about the many lost souls they had encountered on Christmas Day but I found it statistically unlikely for so many interesting events to have happened within what they claimed to only ever be the space of two hours each Christmas Day…
The “be kind” mob however were ever so angry at me suggesting that given the Unions had had to campaign for the right for the workers to knock off Christmas Day opening on it might not be a totally good idea ...?
....even if you don't employ anyone except your own family
...who I'm sure are thrilled to be working the one day everyone else isn't....
“They’re giving back to the community,” they said… maybe but then.... aren't there other things you could do to give back that don't involve running a business at the same time?
“They’re not Open", intoned another.
So I asked what part of their sign saying “We’re Open” did he not understand?
The Facebook page suddenly became alive with lots of people who were very angry and told me I was full of anger and asked when did I ever do anything for the rest of society?
Well, not on Christmas Day. Unlike these local heroes I do not see everyone as my family. I have a family and they are not everybody else. I mean, I'm not a huge fan of Christmas but it is a nice symbolic gesture that once a year there's one day that almost everyone has off... Unless they're providing a vital service ... which retail is not.
Still, the Greek Chorus intoned they were doing something for other people.
Well, if you really want to do community work on Christmas Day I'm sure there are opportunities that don't involve running a retail business but they wouldn't make the Metro's "12 Acts of Kindness" ... which I struggled through a lot of clickbait to read making me feel a bit better about the intrusive adverts on this page which are comparatively discrete. By the way, don't let the fact I'm writing this as a community service stop you clicking on the adverts... I'm not in it for the money. It's a vocation. I do it all out of kindness.
Other ludicrous arguments advanced included that “these people are pensioners” but at 50 I’m nearly a pensioner myself so what’s that to me? Well, okay 50's not that old but still ... I'm nearer the end than the beginning anyway...
There were also passive aggressive sneers posing as arguments such as “U OK Hun?” – something I have not yet been able to decode despite extensive referencing of the Urban Dictionary site.
“Are you a Union Rep?” asked one person.
Well, no but I’m in the Union and 97% of people they surveyed said retail workers should not be working Boxing Day and Christmas Day. I think the Union would take a dim view of this kind of thing now you bring it up ...as for retail to work so do all the distribution chains etc...
...and if these people open why don't the many Tesco and Sainsburys Metros which are all smaller than 280 m^2 to get round the 6 hours Sunday Trading Laws? Now, I'm not part of what the late Victor Lewis Smith used to call the "Keep Sundays Miserable Campaign" but... perhaps one day of the year...?
“Is it too much?” I asked “for people to have one day off capitalism a year?”.
And then I tried to explain the ridiculous expectations some people have that everything should be Open All Hours… but I suppose if you haven’t experienced it, you don’t understand it.
So then the "Be Kind" mob blocked me …as that's what kindness is...
...so I’ll leave the last word to the great philosopher DICKY07549:
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