It shook up shopping in the 80s – and now it’s doing it again. What’s the secret of Britain’s biggest online clothing retailer?
It happens every Boxing Day. While much of Britain is still sleeping off the previous day’s excesses, or blearily stripping a turkey carcass, the queues start building for the Next sale.
Loyal online customers get VIP slots to preview the bargains online; for everyone else, it’s shivering outside the shop at dawn. Even when Covid plunged Leicester into tier 3 restrictions last year, a masked and distanced line of about 200 still formed outside the city’s flagship store before 6am.