Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 57 seconds

More Retailers Tell Employees to Stay Home Thanksgiving Day

As retailers gear up for the holiday shopping season, more are telling their employees to just stay home.

The trend that saw a larger number of retailers decide to close Thanksgiving Day last year is expected to continue this year, according to a recent NBC News report.

"[So far] it's been confirmed that [45] stores that will be closing on Thanksgiving, including some big retailers like Staples, Lowe's, Home Depot, Nordstrom, and REI," says Brent Shelton, online shopping expert at FatWallet. "We expect about a dozen more to follow suit.”

Stores and retailers that were open in 2015, but have opted to close their doors this year, include American Girl, Blain’s Farm & Fleet, hhgregg, Mall of America, Mills Fleet Farm, Nordstrom Rack and Outdoor Research, Shelton says.

One strategy behind closing Thanksgiving Day is to appease employees, but its not all about just making them happy. Stores need to ensure their workers are well rested for the mega shopping that takes place on Black Friday. "Because Black Friday is such a popular shopping day, Thanksgiving gives employees a break before the big rush," says Lisa Disselkamp, head of HR at Deloitte.

"Retailers can use the closure to promote that they are enabling their workers more time off to spend with their families," Disselkamp says. "If employers pay employees on Thanksgiving during their closure, this may also generate stronger employee loyalty and engagement to the organization."

While retailers risk upsetting shoppers who have become used to shopping on Thanksgiving Day, they also may win over other consumers, says Mihaela Akers, a marketing and analytics professional.

"The retailer is building good will, good faith, and a stronger brand among customers," she says. "Closing stores for Thanksgiving shows that the retailer is adhering to strong family values, which quickly draws people with similar values."

Three states--Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine--make it real easy on retailers by requiring that stores be closed Thanksgiving. Indianapolis-based consumer electronics chain, hhgregg, will close its 220 stores, noting it wants its employees to have the day to spend with family, according to a recent article from the Associated Press.

But the retailer acknowledges it is risking little as business is not great on Thanksgiving. While business on Thanksgiving has gone down over the last two years, the firm has been able to do well the days leading up to Thursday, with shopping hitting its peak on Black Friday.

“It’s gotten consistently tougher for our employees,” says Bob Riesbeck, president and CEO of hhgregg. "We felt there was a way to do this without opening on Thanksgiving."

Minnesota’s Mall of America had started opening on Thanksgiving at midnight in 2012 and continued to open earlier in the following years, including at 8 p.m. in 2013 and 6 p.m. in 2014 and last year. While it will be closed this year, the mall notes it will have enough security and staff for tenants who choose to operate that day.

One retailer that is not bucking to the trend of closing on Thanksgiving Day is Macy’s, Forbes reports. The chain, in fact, will open at 5 p.m., one hour earlier than last year.

“I’m sad that this company needs to open stores earlier,” writes Walter Loeb, Forbes contributor. “It cuts the time between the Macy’s parade and work-call awfully close.” But Forbes reported 52 retailers closing on Thanksgiving Day as of Oct. 24 when its story ran. “The shopping furor that in past years has spread to Thanksgiving Day seems to be yielding to a more concentrated Black Friday blast this year.”

Read 3526 times
Rate this item
(0 votes)

Visit other PMG Sites:

PMG360 is committed to protecting the privacy of the personal data we collect from our subscribers/agents/customers/exhibitors and sponsors. On May 25th, the European's GDPR policy will be enforced. Nothing is changing about your current settings or how your information is processed, however, we have made a few changes. We have updated our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy to make it easier for you to understand what information we collect, how and why we collect it.