Don’t Expect to Shop on Thanksgiving Day 2021 at These Retailers

Despite all of the pitfalls of 2020, one of the good things to come out of 2020 was the way that retailers viewed holiday shopping. You may remember during the pandemic when many retailers made the decision to change their hours - 24-hour stores were no longer open around the clock - and many retailers who had been doing business for years on the actual holidays were closed on Thanksgiving.

As a former retail employee - I worked at various times in my life as a supervisor at two of the largest retailers in the country - I can tell you that what happened in 2020, when those stores decided to be closed on Thanksgiving was huge! When you work retail, you often don't get the luxury of having off on holidays like your friends and family do. In fact, on those days where your friends and family are enjoying their day off work, retail employees are often working twice as hard as they would on a normal day, especially on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday.

Being able to have off work on a day like Thanksgiving is huge when you work in retail. It means that you actually get to enjoy a meal with your family instead of worrying about if you can fit it in before you have to show up for your shift. And for those that might argue that not everyone takes part in the traditional family Thanksgiving meal, you're right but those people still deserve to enjoy a day off to just relax.

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That's why I was so excited to learn that Best Buy, Walmart, and Target have announced that they intend to continue what they started in 2020. All three retailers have announced their plans to close their stores on Thanksgiving Day 2021. All three stores have also lifted the mandatory mask mandates, making masks optional for customers who are fully vaccinated.

[Source: USA Today/HaroldMedia.com]