Best Buy joins Walmart and Target in closing stores on Thanksgiving, a blow to Black Friday
- Best Buy confirmed it is closing all stores for Thanksgiving. Walmart and Target are doing the same.
- Best Buy said shoppers can continue shopping for deals online, however.
- Online shopping and year-round deals have meant that Black Friday is losing significance.
Best Buy is closed for Thanksgiving.
The electronics retailer confirmed to Insider Wednesday that all of its stores will be closed for the US national holiday for the second year running. Walmart and Target also announced this year that their stores would close for the holiday.
Thanksgiving had become a popular shopping day for customers who wanted an early jump on deals for Black Friday (which falls the day after Thanksgiving). At some stores, customers would even wait in line overnight to be first inside when the doors opened. But, with the growth of online shopping, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, stores are increasingly taking a more relaxed approach to the day.
"Ultimately, consumers really want convenience and they want to get their item and get out of the store quickly. They don't want to wait in long lines, they don't want to wait for a store to open anymore," Josh Elman, senior specialist at Nasdaq Advisory Services, previously told Insider's Kate Taylor.
Moreover, year-round deals mean that Black Friday and the shopping days around it are losing significance.
"It has become less of a physical event and more of a virtual event in the last five to six years," Dave Marcotte, a senior vice president at Kantar Retail, told Insider, commenting on Black Friday in 2020. It doesn't have the same "immediacy" as before, he said.
In a statement to Insider, Best Buy said it is making it more convenient for shoppers to buy online - by expanding curbside pickup options and offering faster delivery services.