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Thanksgiving shopping

Stores Open and Closed on Thanksgiving Day 2014

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Stores that are open and closed on Thanksgiving day
It wasn’t too long ago that all major retailers remained closed on Thanksgiving Day waiting for the stroke of midnight to open their doors for all the black Friday deals. That’s no longer the case. More and more retail stores are opening their doors at earlier and earlier times on Thanksgiving Day, while others refuse to fall prey to this new trend by keeping their doors shut. This all makes for a lot of confusion for consumers who don’t know which stores will be open or what time they will be opening. Below you’ll find a list of some of the more popular retailers, whether they are open on Thanksgiving Day, and if they are, what time they will open. You can also access more comprehensive list of the stores that will be open and stores that will be closed on Thanksgiving.

While it’s probably in your financial and family interest to avoid shopping on Thanksgiving Day, it’s also the day that will offer the greatest discounts over the Thanksgiving weekend.

If you do decide to go shopping on Thanksgiving day, don’t forget the most important rule. You’re only getting a good deal if the purchases you make were planned purchases. If you were never planning to buy the item until you saw the deal, it’s not a deal at all. Instead, it’s a price induced impulse purchase. You end up spending money you never planned to spend, and when you do that for something that’s not a need, it’s never a good deal.

The following retail stores are opened and closed on Thanksgiving Day:

Walmart Stores

Walmart is open Thanksgiving Day. Walmart is open everyday of the year now for some period of time except for Christmas Day. While it’s open on November 27, stores aren’t open during their normal business hours. Walmart stores open at 6:00 pm on Thanksgiving Day.

Costco Warehouse

Costco is closed Thanksgiving Day. Costco is closed six days during the year, and Thanksgiving Day is one of them. If you need to stock up at the warehouse, you’ll need to do it before November 28. Costco opens on Friday, November 28 an hour earlier than it usually does (9:00 am instead of 10:00 am) for Black Friday.

Target Stores

Target is open Thanksgiving Day. Target is one of the retailers that has decided to open it’s doors early in November 27, although the best deal being offered at Target is on Black Friday. For those who want to hit the store early, it open at 6:00 pm on Thanksgiving Day.

BJ’s Wholesale

BJ’s Wholesale is closed Thanksgiving Day. BJ’s is another store which has decided to remain closed on November 28 so that employees can enjoy the day with their families. BJ’s will open on Black Friday at 7:00 am.

JC Penny

JC Penny is open Thanksgiving Day. JC Penny is supposed to have the highest percentage discounts this Black Friday weekend with savings of over 65 percent. JC Penny is also getting an hour jump on many of the other major retailers by opening its doors at 5:00 pm on Thanksgiving Day.

Macy’s

Macy’s is open Thanksgiving Day. All Macy’s stores will open on Thanksgiving Day with some big discounts (the store ranks as the #2 behind JC Penny for best discounts offered for Black Friday weekend with savings of over 50%). Macy’s will open at 6:00 pm on Thanksgiving Day.

Sears

Sears is open Thanksgiving Day. Sears will be opening its doors on November 28, and will be joining both Walmart and Target in opening its doors at 6:00 pm. It’s supposed to have the best percentage discounts on clothes at over 70 percent off regular retail prices.

Kmart

Kmart is open Thanksgiving Day. Kmart has decided to leave no pretense that Thanksgiving should be a day to spend time with family and friends, and it’s treating the entire day as one for shopping. While most retailers won’t open until the evening, Kmart is opening its doors at 6:00 am (yest, that’s in the morning and not a typo) on Thanksgiving Day.

Lowe’s

Lowe’s is closed Thanksgiving Day. If you are planning to do some work on the house on Thanksgiving, you should buy the items you’ll need for the project before Thursday since Lowe’s is one of the retailers refusing to open its doors on Thanksgiving Day. Lowe’s opens at 5:00 am on Black Friday.

Home Depot

Home Depot is closed Thanksgiving Day. Home Depot stores, much like Lowe’s, has made the decision to stay closed on Thanksgiving Day to let their employees have the day off with their families. Home Depot will open its doors at 5:00 am the day after Thanksgiving.

Best Buy Stores

Best Buy is open Thanksgiving Day. Best Buy is joining JC Penny in opening its doors an hour earlier than their main competitors. Best Buy will be open for business at 5:00 pm on Thanksgiving Day.

While some retail stores are beginning to open on Thanksgiving Day, that’s not the case with everything. The post offices will be closed on November 27, and so will credit unions and banks.

What is Gray Thursday?

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What is Gray Thursday?
If you have never heard the term “Gray Thursday” (also being referred to as Black Thursday) you will begin to hear it more and more in the years to come. It looks like last year securely entrenched itself as the way the Thanksgiving holiday will be celebrated each year by retailers now and in the future.

There has been a growing change when it comes to retailers and Thanksgiving over the last few years. While it wasn’t too long ago Thanksgiving was a day where only emergency shopping at the local convenience store could be done, that’s no longer the case. In fact, the majority of large, big-box retail stores are now open for at least some time on Thanksgiving, and these retailers have started to brand shopping on Thanksgiving Day as Gray Thursday.

Whether you like it or not, Gray Thursday is here to stay. The time when retailers waited to open their doors at 12:01 am on Friday are long gone. While there are a few major retailers which will remain closed for the entire day (Costco, GameStop and Nordstrom are part of this minority), most others will be open for at least a few hours before Black Friday. Currently most still limit their opening hours to Thursday night, though even that’s likely to change over time. K-Mart now opens at 6:00 am and stays open throughout the day, and remains open continuously for the entire four-day shopping weekend. Other retailers have been extending their Thanksgiving opening hours over the last couple of years an hour here and an hour there so that they are slowly creeping into the evening hours as well.

Retailers usually give two main reasons for embracing Gray Thursday. First, they note that their competitors are doing it, and to remain competitive they need to do the same. The second reason has been the rise of the Internet. They point out the Internet is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including Thanksgiving. As more retailers view Internet shopping as a direct competitor, they feel the need to keep their stores open longer hours to compete here as well.

Another issue is that Black Friday has lost a lot of its traditional meaning. While it initially meant great deals which could only be found on the Friday after Thanksgiving, today it has turned into a month-long marketing campaign. More and more stores are launching their Black Friday deals the day after Halloween. What that means is the Gray Thursday is taking on the role of what Black Friday had been in the past of the great in-store deals on a single day to launch the holiday shopping season.

In the end, it’s not only the retailers to blame for this encroachment on Thanksgiving family time. The fact is that when these stores open their doors on Gray Thursday, consumers flock to them. If consumers refused to participate with these earlier opening hours, then the stores wouldn’t open their doors. As long as consumers are willing to come, the stores will continue to be open on Thanksgiving Day.

(Photo courtesy of John Henderson)