WE’RE CLOSED
Fewer stores open for biz on Thanksgiving
Avid Black Friday shoppers hoping to get an early break on in-store sales might run into some holiday hurdles this year.
That’s because a growing number of stores are deciding to close on Thanksgiving Day, reversing a trend that started to take hold about a decade ago as retailers sought to get a head start on one of the biggest shopping day of the year.
According to a list compiled by the shopping-information website bestblackfriday.com, 76 national and regional companies will give their employees the day off Thursday. That compares with 69 businesses last year and 59 in 2016, when the website first started tracking the closures.
Companies closing on Thanksgiving are expected to benefit from an online shopping boom that allows them to profit and keep their employees happy by giving them the day off. American consumers are expected to spend about $720 billion on holiday shopping this year, an annual increase of more than 4 percent, according to the National Retail Federation.
“Many people are not only avoiding those stores on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, but they are avoiding them altogether,” said Phil Dengler, co-owner of bestblackfriday.com. “The fact that online Thanksgiving shopping has taken off so much recently has just been the justification for stores to finally switch course and close on Thanksgiving.”
Still, some stores will remain open on Thanksgiving, including Walmart, Target and Best Buy.
Best Buy chooses to open for Thanksgiving because it’s what customers want, said company spokeswoman Boua Xiong.
“We have millions of customers, so part of it is certainly demand, but people have made tradition of coming out to stores to shop,” she said.