Macy’s announced on Thursday that its doors will be open this holiday season, starting at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving evening. Sales will continue through Black Friday and the weekend in over 700 of its retail stores nationwide.
Macy’s, along with 12 other major retailers like Target, Best Buy, and JCPenny, made employees come in to work on Thanksgiving Day in last year. Yet 18 other stores were closed.
This year, Staples, which was among those open on the holiday last year, confirmed it will not be open on Thanksgiving. Mattress Firm, REI, GameStop, and PC Richards and Son will also close their doors, allowing thousands of retail workers to celebrate the holiday at home. REI went a step further to close on Black Friday as well, and will even pay its employees for their time off, encouraging them to spend time outdoors.
Retail stores that were open last year in hopes of boosting their holiday sales didn’t increase overall holiday purchases. Transactions simply shifted from what shoppers would have spent on Black Friday to the holiday itself, rather than increasing the number of overall sales. Strong consumer and legislative backlash against the idea of stores opening on Thanksgiving could also be curbing the trend of stores opening on the holidays. Polls from last year showed that half of Americans thought opening on Thanksgiving Day was a bad idea.