28-12-2011, 01:18 PM
If you believed the newspapers over here yesterday, all the shops were jammed out with people at the sales.
Which is strange, because thanks to a Christmas Day phonecall warning me a bloody pest of a relative (like all my relatives are!) was calling on us yesterday (as much fun as toothache) I had to dash out into the big city on Boxing Day to get them a Christmas present.
The TV was already reporting record crowds across the country in the early morning news bulletins, so I prepared myself for the worst.
Here's the packed crowds of shoppers in the city centre at noon on Boxing Day, taken with my cameraphone.
![[Image: 2wqbbcj.jpg]](http://oi41.tinypic.com/2wqbbcj.jpg)
![[Image: shocked.gif]](http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z159/waffenthinmint/shocked.gif)
"Oh no! What am I to do? I'll never get through these vast crowds!"
![[Image: 255osuc.jpg]](http://oi43.tinypic.com/255osuc.jpg)
![[Image: omg.gif]](http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z159/waffenthinmint/omg.gif)
"All those people! It's going to take me at least five, uh, minutes, to get through them!
Two hours later, here's the scenes at the main railway station.
![[Image: eqp7qu.jpg]](http://oi42.tinypic.com/eqp7qu.jpg)
"Lucky I brought a sleeping bag for the queue just to get on a platform!"
But according to the papers the next day.
![[Image: 30rv14g.jpg]](http://oi42.tinypic.com/30rv14g.jpg)
WTF?
Some of the shops on Boxing Day sent staff home early because there was nothing to do. In a couple of places the small shop owners were nearly in tears because they'd staked their survival on getting a turn on Boxing Day (for some it's half of their year's trade in one day) but it was clearly not going to happen and they were doomed now to go under by the end of January in massive debt.
But all the press were talking about was "record sales" nationwide! WHERE? Paying a bunch of Chinese tourists to run through a shopping mall in London as a publicity stunt does not make it record sales. This isn't North Korea where reality is whatever you want to make it up to be.
Do they think kidding on everyone's buying is going to make everyone rush out and buy overpriced crap they don't want or need just because everyone else is doing so? No wonder this country is a mess if that's what passes for business management, kid on everything's hunky dory.
![[Image: PissedOff.gif]](http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z159/waffenthinmint/PissedOff.gif)
Which is strange, because thanks to a Christmas Day phonecall warning me a bloody pest of a relative (like all my relatives are!) was calling on us yesterday (as much fun as toothache) I had to dash out into the big city on Boxing Day to get them a Christmas present.
The TV was already reporting record crowds across the country in the early morning news bulletins, so I prepared myself for the worst.
Here's the packed crowds of shoppers in the city centre at noon on Boxing Day, taken with my cameraphone.
"Oh no! What am I to do? I'll never get through these vast crowds!"
"All those people! It's going to take me at least five, uh, minutes, to get through them!
Two hours later, here's the scenes at the main railway station.
"Lucky I brought a sleeping bag for the queue just to get on a platform!"
But according to the papers the next day.
WTF?
Some of the shops on Boxing Day sent staff home early because there was nothing to do. In a couple of places the small shop owners were nearly in tears because they'd staked their survival on getting a turn on Boxing Day (for some it's half of their year's trade in one day) but it was clearly not going to happen and they were doomed now to go under by the end of January in massive debt.
But all the press were talking about was "record sales" nationwide! WHERE? Paying a bunch of Chinese tourists to run through a shopping mall in London as a publicity stunt does not make it record sales. This isn't North Korea where reality is whatever you want to make it up to be.
Do they think kidding on everyone's buying is going to make everyone rush out and buy overpriced crap they don't want or need just because everyone else is doing so? No wonder this country is a mess if that's what passes for business management, kid on everything's hunky dory.