- The Thanksgiving weekend is a notorious time for shopping, but retailers large and small are bucking the trend by ignoring or closing down all together. Photo by Evan Fallor
by Reece Alvarez and Evan Fallor
Each year, it appears Black Friday becomes more like Black Thursday.
Thanksgiving diners shovel in the last bites of pumpkin pie and zoom out to their favorite stores, which have opened closer and closer to turkey time, then brave long lines and cold temperatures in the hopes of taking advantage of slashed prices.
It”™s a strategy that has been targeting the bargain hunter for quite some time, but this year an increased number of big-box stores will shutter their doors on Thanksgiving.
Costco, national clothing retailers DSW, Nordstrom, T.J. Maxx and Marshalls and home improvement stores The Home Depot and Lowe”™s were among those that will shutter their doors on Thanksgiving Day, in an effort to allow employees to spend the holiday with their families and friends.
Shoe retailer DSW, which operates stores in Yonkers, White Plains, Port Chester and Mohegan Lake, will not open until 7 a.m. Friday.
“While many retail stores will be opening for business on Thanksgiving Day, this year we continue the DSW tradition of keeping ours closed,” DSW CEO Michael R. MacDonald said in a statement. “Family time is extremely important to us, and we want our associates to enjoy the holiday with their loved ones.”
Nordstrom, the Seattle-based high-end clothing retailer, has closed on Thanksgiving Day for “as long as anyone can remember,” said spokesman Dan Evans Jr. The company, which debuted in 1901, operates a store at The Westchester in White Plains that will not open until 8 a.m. Friday. Evans said the company uses Thanksgiving to implement its winter holiday decorations in stores, though its website remained open for business.
“Customers really like this approach, they”™ve told us over the years,” Evans said.
Owned by Simon Property Group, The Westchester is closed on the holiday and will open at 7 a.m. for Black Friday, while The Galleria at White Plains, also operated by Simon, opens at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving and closes at 1 a.m. on Friday before reopening again five hours later.
“Our extra festive holiday hours provides guests with the utmost convenience so they may celebrate the season in a way that meets their needs ”” from the early riser in search of the great deals to the last-minute shopper on a quest for the perfect gift to delight their loved ones,” said Paula Kelliher, area director of mall marketing for The Westchester and The Galleria.
That”™s how Kevin Paul Scott, co-founder of Atlanta-based consulting firm ADDO Worldwide, sees it. He”™s seen more and more stores rolling back the clock from early Black Friday, to midnight on Thanksgiving, to even earlier times, but said a core group of retailers have resisted and remained closed on the holiday, a trend that began last year.
Thanksgiving closures, he said, are another way of communicating to customers that they care about their employees in hopes of building better brand recognition, and “subtly or not so subtly” shaming other retailers who remained open. The target: younger shoppers.
“Millennials choose companies to do business with the way that previous generations chose charities,” Scott said. “When they spend, they want it to say something about what they believe. This is a way to build a deeper connection with those consumers.”
The National Retail Federation, which tracks holiday shopping statistics, found in a preliminary Thanksgiving weekend survey that 78 percent of 18-24-year-olds and 77 percent of 25-34-year-olds would shop during the Thanksgiving weekend.
The organization estimated that 135.8 million shoppers would shop in stores or online between Thursday and Sunday, 73.5 percent of whom would do so on Black Friday, and another 22.3 percent on Thanksgiving.
Adam Weinstein of Dobbs Ferry is one such thrifty millennial.
He said he”™s a fan of the great deals and prefers to get a head start by getting his shopping done on Thanksgiving Day. To him, it”™s about who is open before the Friday rush.
“I see it as a way to improve corporate employee relations, so it doesn”™t really affect me,” said Weinstein, 24. “It just means I”™ll be spending money somewhere else first.”
- REI will be closing all of its stores this year on Black Friday. Photo by Matt Peyton/AP Images for REI
Saying ”˜No”™ to Black Thursday
In Connecticut, the nation”™s largest specialty outdoor retailer, Recreational Equipment Inc., popularly known as REI, is taking a firm stance against the Black Friday surge by closing its doors at all 143 of its retail locations including its two stores in Norwalk and West Hartford.
The move will include the company”™s Washington headquarters and national distribution centers (but not their online retail website) and is part of a their marketing campaign #OptOutside, designed to promote outdoor recreation during one of the most anticipated and promoted shopping weekends of the year.
“We think that Black Friday has gotten out of hand and so we are choosing to invest in helping people get outside with loved ones this holiday season, over spending it in the aisles,” said REI president and CEO Jerry Stritzke in a statement announcing the closures. “Black Friday is the perfect time to remind ourselves of the essential truth that life is richer, more connected and complete when you choose to spend it outside.”
REI, a membership-supported, non-publicly traded cooperative company will also pay its 12,000 employees for the day off, according to the statement. Figures for how much in sales REI will miss out on by closing its stores for the day were not made available.
The move by the major retailer has not been widely adopted with local sports outfitters prepared to pick up whatever business the retailer sheds.
“What we do for Black Friday, as an independent, small retail store is we just get through it,” said Dick Hoyt, president and owner of Outdoor Traders in Greenwich.
The Black Friday shopping weekend is not his busiest period, but closing on the day would be unwise due to the high level of regional competition in his industry, he said.
Hoyt said the smorgasbord of sales has actually tarnished consumer trust in pricing with prices varying wildly from normal retail prices.
“People have become cynical with retail because they don”™t know who to trust,” he said. “We just hold the price and take our hit. It is something we have always done and we have been in business here in Greenwich for 25 years. The Black Friday deals are getting bigger for sure, you hear more about them, but the increase and pressure hasn”™t caused us to have to cave in.”
He took exception to REI”™s Black Friday plans as slightly disingenuous considering the company will likely conduct brisk business online.
“If the store is closed that is great for the store people,” he said. “But I bet they are doing a heck of a lot of business online.”
While REI may not be totally moving away from Black Friday, the marketing tactic can be seen as a clever move, said Scott, the author of the book “8 Essential Exchanges.”
“People who didn”™t know what REI was now went to their website,” Scott said. “It”™s been a great play for REI.”
He expects the trend of stores closing for Thanksgiving and Black Friday to continue, though he does not expect to see a groundswell of adoption anytime soon.
