Boxing these days

Yesterday was the Boxing Day Holiday in New Zealand, because the actual day—December 26—fell on a Saturday this year. When either Christmas Day or Boxing Day falls on a weekend, the Statutory Holiday (colloquially knowns as “stats” or “stat days” is observed the following Monday (and Tuesday if needed). It sounds far more complicated than it actual is. The bigger point is, New Zealanders got Monday off this year. That, and the idea is slowly spreading.

The graphic at left is a sales email I got from the Chicago Tribune for some sort of marketing company they own (I’ve never followed any of their links, so I have no idea what, exactly, it is). The point is, they’re trying to hook onto Boxing Day as a way of promoting more consumer spending, and was the only Boxing Day promotion email I received from a US-based company (for comparison, I started getting Boxing Dale Sale emails from NZ retailers on Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day—and every day since).

Apparently US companies promoting Boxing Day sales is becoming a more common thing.

A piece from Vox published earlier this month was a pretty good explanation of what Boxing Day is. I liked that it’s irreverent (just like the Antipodean sense of humour, in which pisstakes abound). It also talks about US retailers embracing (or trying to…) Boxing Day, like in that email. I think that if it makes sense for NZ retailers to embrace “Black Friday” to increase sales, and they certainly are, then it makes just as much sense for US retailers to embrace Boxing Day sales for the same reason. After all, what unites retailers throughout the world is that they just don’t have enough days to pin sales promotions onto, right?

I didn’t venture out to any Boxing Day Sales over the weekend (or yesterday). I didn’t want to get caught in traffic anywhere, and I didn’t have any urgent need to go anywhere, anyway. Instead, I unpacked about nine boxes in the garage, and yesterday I figured out what to do with the things I was keeping (I threw some things away, others went into the recycling bin). Today or tomorrow I’ll head out to get dog food because I’ll need more soon and the store has a Boxing Day Sale. Of Course. And, no, they don’t call it their “Boxer Day Sale”, nor their “Barking Day Sale”. They don’t discriminate and, in fact, sell stuff for all pets. Like all NZ retailers, apparently, their “Boxing Dale Sale” actually lasts until early January.

Boxing Day for me is mainly just another public holiday, one I’ve not often treated as a shopping day. This year was no different.

Previously

2009: “And now Boxing Day”  – My first post where I talked specifically about Boxing Day, which, like this year, was on Saturday.
2010: “And back to it… again” – Boxing Day was on Sunday that year, so Monday and Tuesday were both Stat Holidays.
2011: “Holiday (observed)” – That year, the Christmas stat holiday was moved because it fell on a Sunday.
2012: “Boxing Day” – A post on the actual day!
2013: “Boxing Day quiet” – On the actual day again.
2014: “Day of boxes” – Also on the actual day.
2015: “Holiday’s unanticipated ends” – Boxing Day was also on a Saturday that year, but it didn’t go well for us.
2016: “Missing summer” – The post very briefly mentions Boxing Day when talking about our holidays.
2017: “Boxing Day 2017”.
2018: “The stormy Christmas” – Posted on Boxing Day, and about what turned out to be our last holiday together.
2019: “It turned out okay” – My first Christmas and Boxing Day without Nigel.