Best Buy Joins Growing List of Retailers Closing Stores on Thanksgiving Day

Best Buy is the latest retailer to announce it will keep its stores closed on Thanksgiving Day this year, CNBC reported. The company will instead offer its Black Friday deals online for the second year in a row. Best Buy joins a growing list of retailers that have started to share holiday season plans. Both Target and Walmart will also be closed on Thanksgiving Day.

For years, Black Friday had been the kick-off to holiday shopping, but more recently, retailers pushed for consumers to shop earlier by providing discounts to them in-store on Thanksgiving Day. However, the pandemic shifted consumers' shopping patterns, with many opting to shop online or use curbside pickup. As a result, more companies offered shoppers discounts online.

At this time, we don't know Best Buy's plans or store hours for Black Friday, but millions of customers were able to shop last year during Black Friday weekend by using the retailer's e-commerce site and curbside pick-up options.

Total Retail's Take: Opening stores on Thanksgiving Day has been a source of debate between retail companies and store associates for years. Some people have argued that stores should be closed for the entire holiday so employees can spend time with their families. In fact, some states like Massachusetts and Maine even passed laws prohibiting big-box retailers from opening on Thanksgiving. However, retailers were reluctant to turn away consumers eager to get their holiday shopping started, even if was Thanksgiving Day. The decision to keep Best Buy stores closed on the holiday and lean into the brand's e-commerce site instead would seem to be a win for customers, store associates and the retailer itself. Customers will still have ample options to shop, store associates can get a break for the holiday, and retailers will still make sales goals.