Home Bargains has announced it’ll be closing all its stores across the UK on both Boxing Day and New Year’s Day once again this year.
It’s to make sure staff get a “well deserved break”.
After what has been yet another busy year for the retail industry, many workers have been left feeling like they could do with a little extra time off – which is why discounter retailer Home Bargains has announced its plans to shut up shop on two bank holidays.
Confirming the move in a post across all its social media platforms today, Home Bargains said: “All of our stores will be closing for Boxing Day and New Years Day as our staff are having a well deserved break [and] we would like to thank [them] for how hard they have worked this past year.
“We want [our staff] to relax and enjoy the Christmas break with loved ones.”
Explaining a little more about the decision taken to close all its stores, Home Bargains said: “As a family-run business, we know the importance of being together at Christmas with those we care about most, now more than ever.
“This is our way of saying thank you to our colleagues for their continued hard work and dedication.”
ADVERTISEMENT
As it does pretty much every year, Home Bargains’ decision to close all stores on the two bank holidays again for this festive season has been met with lots of praise by customers online – with the retailer’s social media posts having racked up tens of thousands of interactions in just a couple of hours since posting.
Home Bargains to close over festive period and give staff a ‘well deserved break’ / Credit: Home Bargains
Of course, this isn’t the first time Home Bargains has kept its doors shut on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day either.
Many shoppers will remember it’s made the same decision to give hardworking staff the day off in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 too – with the middle two years perhaps most-needed as a break from the hectic working environments and schedules brought on by COVID-19.
Home Bargains has nearly 600 stores, and employs more than 22,000 staff in the UK.
Featured Image – Home Bargains
Shopping
Major retailer Monki to close store in Manchester Arndale
Daisy Jackson
Monki, a popular fashion brand that’s owned by H&M, had announced it’s closing its Manchester store – and soon.
The high street brand is famed for selling bold, playful clothing at affordable prices.
It opened its glittering disco-inspired shop in the heart of the Manchester Arndale in 2018.
Shoppers will recognise the holographic arches at the entrance and the Monki brand name spelled out in lightbulbs overhead.
But this week, H&M confirmed that all seven Monki stores across the UK will close, either shutting them completely or merging them with Weekday, another of the retail giant’s brands.
Manchester is among the first casualties of this move, with signs in the window of the store confirming that a closing down sale will be live until 12 January.
At that point, the Manchester Monki store will close for good.
Also shutting will be Newcastle, with the fate of the five remaining shops – including one in Sheffield – not yet confirmed.
The statement from H&M read: “A limited number of Monki stores are intended to be transformed into multi-brand Weekday destinations, while the others are intended to be closed.
“The newly formed Weekday multi-brand destination will cater to customers’ high aesthetic standards while embracing their multitude of unique expressions.”
In a statement shared earlier this month, they added: “Being mindful about the changes this might entail for our colleagues; we look forward to this exciting new chapter on the way to something great.”
Monki will close in Manchester Arndale on 12 January.
The best picky bits and Christmas party food in M&S this year
Daisy Jackson
Can some scientist please explain why us Brits have such a compulsion to roll out the picky bits and party food (ESPECIALLY if it comes from M&S) as soon as there’s a vague sense of occasion?
Birthday party? Picky bits. BBQ season? Picky bits. Had a long day at work and can’t decide what to have for tea but definitely don’t want a Pot Noodle? Picky bits.
And when Christmas or New Year’s Eve rolls around, the urge to consume random little morsels of food intensifies.
Whether it’s British classics squashed down into tiny portions and jammed on a buffet table or fancy little appetisers you hand around a party, we just can’t get enough.
Which is why we’ve raided the shelves at M&S once again to bring you all the best picky bits and party food available for Christmas 2024.
As for prices, the more premium M&S Collection party food items are generally priced at £7.50, with the more standard range coming in at £5.50 each, and all available on a four-for-three offer.
And yes, you might end up spending an obscene amount of money on miniature food items that won’t do a single thing to quell an appetite, but my gosh, won’t you feel like a prim and proper princess when you slide those teeny weeny fish and chips in front of your guests.
Let’s begin.
Brits abroad
M&S party food 2024 – chicken shawarma and Middle Eastern flatbreadsM&S party food 2024 – patatas bravas stacks
M&S might be the most staunchly British institution of modern times, but us Brits also love nothing more than to lift the culinary expertise of other countries onto our own plates.
And this year is no exception – M&S has whipped up a whole host of party food inspired by international favourites.
From little potato stacks that pay homage to everyone’s favourite tapas dish, patatas bravas, to tiny chicken shawarma kebabs to Middle Eastern Flatbreads, if you want a little spice on your Christmas buffet, they’ve got it.
Well aren’t you a fancy pants?!
‘Ooooh, someone’s doing well’ comes the chorus of praise as you hand around your mini prawn thermidor (these tiny gold trays even have a cheddar cheese crumb on top).
‘Wow, that must’ve been a good Christmas bonus’ they say as they accept a mini coquille St Jacques, complete with extra-small shell.
If upper middle class was a nibble, it would probably look like these guys.
Little Britain
Mini scampi and chips, and miniature pies at M&SMini Yorkshire puddings and cheese and ham scones from M&S party food range
Imagine all your classic British dishes, pub food, Sunday dinners, comfort meals cooked by your mum – you picturing them? Okay, now imagine them again but really, really small.
Now you’ve got a good idea of the items in our next M&S party food category.
There are mini Yorkshire puddings filled with slow-cooked beef, red wine and mushroom jus, and a garlic and herb crumb.
There are neat little cheddar and ham scones, miniature pies filled with beef and ale or chicken and leek, and even picky bit-sized scampi and chips portions, complete with newspaper wrapping. Cute!
The classics
M&S prawn selectionM&S pigs in blankets and halloumi in blanketsM&S Smoked salmon appetisers
These are not just buffet food items, these are M&S buffet food items, and that means they come with a bit of pizzazz.
Yes, there are pigs in blankets, but there are also halloumi pigs in blankets (which they weirdly haven’t made vegetarian) served with a hot honey drizzle.
ADVERTISEMENT
We love a battered prawn on a party food selection and M&S has done a selection of tiger prawn nibbles – prawn baguette toasts, prawn and coconut bites, and prawn and potato lattice balls. The word prawn is starting to look weird.
There are also smoked salmon appetisers, where smoked salmon strips are rolled around a honey roast salmon mousse. Hope ya like very small fish!
I’d love to be a fly on the wall when the M&S party food is discussed, because I’m pretty sure no one around that boardroom table is telling them ‘No, Arabella, that’s a silly idea’. Arabella does what she wants.
This year, she’s heard all the ‘girl dinner’ trends and gone ‘WE SHOULD MAKE A CHRISTMAS DIP’ – the result is a turkey feast dip topped with shredded turkey and bacon, cranberry sauce, cranberries and a stuffing crumb. WHY, ARABELLA?!
They’ve also brought back the novelty-shaped bao, this year in two festive shapes – penguins and polar bears.
ADVERTISEMENT
And of course you can still get miniature steak sandwiches and I don’t know why that makes me so uncomfortable, but it does.
A very yeehaw Christmas
M&S Mini beef burgersBuffalo chicken croquettes and New York deli spring rolls at M&S
Giddy up, cowboy, it’s time for the rootin’-tootin’ M&S party food show!
Everyone’s favourite fancy supermarket has gone stateside this year, drawing inspiration from the healthiest of nations… America.
There are Buffalo chicken croquettes, served with an extra Buffalo sauce dip, mini beef burgers (always the hardest thing to eat), and, weirdly, spring rolls inspired by a New York deli?
They’ve shoved salt beef and sauerkraut into a spring roll and then served it with a mustard and gherkin dip. You do you, M&S.
ADVERTISEMENT
Now you’re just showing off
M&S party food 2024 – the charcuter-tree. Credit: The Manc Group
You’re presenting your charcuterie on a flat board? Peasant.
Real fancy people present their cured meat and cheese selection in the shape of a Christmas tree (obviously) and M&S have got a build-you-own kit available for £25.
An extra shout-out to the security-locked Serrano ham joint, which came with its own block and knife, for another statuesque meat buffet option.
Emily Sergeant -
15th September 2023 
