- Walmart CEO John Furner recently said keeping stores open on Thanksgiving is "a thing of the past."
- Some companies, Walmart included, closed stores on Thanksgiving in the past few years because of the pandemic, but others may follow suit well into the future.
If you're looking to do some holiday shopping on Thanksgiving Day this year, you won't find anything at a Walmart store.
Walmart CEO John Furner recently told The Today Show that the company won't have stores open on the holiday.
"It's a thing of the past," he said. "We'll be closed again on Thanksgiving. Fortunately, all of our associates will be able to spend time with their loved ones this year."
Several retailers, including big-box stores like Walmart and Target, have closed their doors on Thanksgiving for the past two years to minimize crowding in-stores during the pandemic.
But the policy may be here to stay, even as society abandons COVID-19 precautions.
"Thanksgiving used to be kind of the kickoff to the holiday season. It was when a lot of people started their holiday shopping" said Katherine Cullen, senior director of industry and consumer insights for the National Retail Federation. "The reality is that has changed now."
The Thanksgiving Day shopping frenzy expanded over the years to become a five-day event stretching from the holiday to Cyber Monday. Then, there was "Black November" as retailers offered discounts the whole month long. Now, many deals appear well before Halloween.
The rise of online shopping over the years also allowed customers to snag deals from the comfort of their homes after Thanksgiving dinner, without having to face crowds in stores.
"Consumers seem to like the option to spread out their budget, they like the ability to not have to concentrate all their shopping on an individual day," Cullen added. "That kind of takes some of the pressure off of Thanksgiving Day specifically."
This year's red-hot inflation is also giving shoppers another reason to spread out their spending, as they try to nab earlier deals for fear that prices will go up later, and as they try to dampen the effect of holiday shopping on their wallets at any one time.