Mall of America will be closed on Thanksgiving: Why all stores should follow suit

America’s largest mall, Mall of America, announced on Wednesday morning that they will close on Thanksgiving. This may not come as much of a surprise since it seems traditional that stores should close on all major holidays, but that hasn’t been the case in recent years.

Most shopping centers have chosen to stay open for Thanksgiving, stretching Black Friday deals to the day before. The reason for opening on a major holiday is that stores have claim they have seen a major increase in profits if they display their deals on Thanksgiving Day.

While many shoppers love the idea of stores being open on Thanksgiving, there has been a lot of backlash as well.

In Mall of America’s case the Senior Vice President, Jill Renslow made a statement saying, “We think Thanksgiving is a day for families and for people we care about.” They recognize that it is important that this day is given back to their employees. While the mall and all of its attractions will be closed, many stores will have the option to remain open.

The decision to close is expected to gain serious criticism for closing, many believe that it is one of the best things the mall can do.

The eager Black Friday shoppers don’t take into consideration that the employees of these stores aren’t able to be with their families on Thanksgiving. Most don’t even have the option to not work on the major holiday. In the case of retail workers, the only option is to work on Thanksgiving so that they don’t lose their jobs.

Of course, many stores around America, most likely won’t follow suit because people are always going to be willing to shop on the holiday which could increase their profitability. If only we could revert back to when holidays were more sacred than shopping.

There have been studies that prove opening on Thanksgiving doesn’t necessarily increase profits, but instead it spreads the sale out over more days. Meaning one of the only benefits of opening on the holiday is that it gives more time for consumers to shop, it isn’t guaranteed that profits will go up.

Mall of America will officially reopen on Black Friday at 5am to kick off its sales. It is encouraged by many people to not support shopping on a holiday, but the decision is yours.