With Thanksgiving just 11 days away, what better time to rekindle the annual debate over opening stores on this national holiday.
To recap, the arguments go something like this:
Con: Thanksgiving is a special time when families and friends gather to bond over a feast and give thanks for this nation’s bounty. Commercialism has no place on this holiday, and employees should be allowed to spend it with kin.
Pro: If folks are so opposed, why are our stores packed on Thanksgiving?
At last count more than 60 national and regional chains will remain closed Thanksgiving, trading lost sales for the admiration of customers and staff. Among them: Lowe’s, Home Depot, Costco, BJs, Staples and P.C. Richard & Son.
See Gary Richard make the case for closing P.C. Richard on Thanksgiving
Conversely, many big names will be open for business, at least for part of the day, including Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Sears, GameStop, Macy’s, JCPenney, Kohl’s and Kmart (which takes the cake — and the coffee — for opening at 6:00 a.m.).
To find out how shoppers really feel about all this, Jones-Dengler Marketing, the duo behind BestBlackFriday.com, reprised its Thanksgiving Day Shopping survey. The upshot: “Apparently many people despise stores being open,” reported principal Phil Dengler, and their numbers are growing.
Specifically, 57.5 percent of the population, or nearly 145 million Americans, don’t think stores should be open on Thanksgiving, up from (54.7 percent last year.
Of those, 37 percent strongly believe stores should stay closed, about the same as last year.
In contrast, only 16 percent of citizens think stores should be open on Thanksgiving, down from 18 percent last year. Of those, only 5.6 percent strongly favor it, down from 8.2 percent in 2016.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the numbers skew by age, with older and presumably more traditional respondents favoring a shopping-free day, while the youngest cohort was the most vociferous about keeping stores open.
Of course, in every poll there’s that great mass of non-reflective undecideds, and in this case more than 26 percent don’t care either way.
The survey was conducted Sept. 26-27 and queried a statistically significant 523 American adults over the age of 18.
For those who don’t mind the holiday store openings or for competitors that do, here’s Jones-Dengler Marketing’s list of retailers that will be open for business on Nov. 23 and their hours:
Store Opening Times on Thanksgiving Day 2017
Bass Pro Shops – 8:00 a.m.
Bealls Florida – 6:00 p.m.
Belk – 4:00 p.m.
Bergner’s – 11:00 a.m.
Best Buy – 5:00 p.m.
Big Lots – 7:00 a.m.
Bon-Ton – 11:00 a.m.
Boston Store – 11:00 a.m.
Cabela’s – 8:00 a.m.
Carson’s – 11:00 a.m.
CVS Pharmacy (hours not announced)
Dick’s Sporting Goods – 6:00 p.m.
Dollar General – 7:00 a.m.
Elder-Beerman – 11:00 a.m.
Five Below – 6:00 p.m.
Fred’s Pharmacy – 9:00 a.m.
GameStop (hours not announced)
Herberger’s – 11:00 a.m.
JCPenney – 2:00 p.m.
Kohl’s – 5:00 p.m.
Kmart – 6:00 a.m.
Macy’s – 5:00 p.m.
Meijer – 6:00 a.m.
Michaels – 6:00 p.m. ; 5:00 p.m. for Rewards members.
Rite Aid – hours vary by location
Sears – 6:00 p.m.
Shopko – 4:00 p.m.
Stage Stores – 2:00 p.m.
Target – 6:00 p.m.
Toys“R”Us – 5:00 p.m.
Walgreens – hours vary by location
Walmart – 6:00 p.m.
Younker’s – 11:00 a.m.
