Malls are closing for Thanksgiving, but what about their stores?
Customers' frustration with retailers opening on Thanksgiving has reached a boiling point this season, with dozens of malls across the country closing for the holiday.
The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.
Jim Mone/AP/File
Consumers' frustration with聽retailers opening their doors聽on Thanksgiving Day to launch their Black Friday sales has been building for several years. Now,听the tide may finally be turning.聽
CBL & Associates to close 73 malls聽on Thanksgiving Day.
Much聽is being made of CBL & Associates' decision to close 73 of its 89 mall properties聽on Thanksgiving Day, especially as it comes on the heels of a similar announcement from聽. According to聽, the closures will聽give roughly 1,500 mall employees nationwide and between 750 and 2,000 retail employees per property the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with their聽friends and families. Some rough聽math puts the estimated聽number of workers with the day off somewhere around 100,000.
"We think that for our employees and for the store employees, they deserve the day off and to be able to spend the day with their families," CBL CEO Stephen Lebovitz told CNBC. "Thanksgiving is a special holiday, and it's unfair for them not to be able to enjoy it like everyone else can."
It's the first time since 2012 that CBL properties will be closed for the entirety of Thanksgiving Day.
In 2015, most CBL properties stayed聽closed throughout the day, but opened for the start of evening sales聽at聽6pm, then closing again at midnight,听聽once the early evening doorbuster sales expired and fewer retailers expressed any interest in staying open later.
What's really聽behind Thanksgiving mall closures?
One major reason that retailers and mall operators are feeling more comfortable with closing on Thanksgiving is that more and more promotions are available before the holiday, and more doorbusters are now available online. As聽much as shoppers cheer these closures, the capitulation聽is聽less driven by a desire to appease the angry mob than it is an acknowledgement that, to put it bluntly, closing on Thanksgiving simply is not hurting their holiday sales figures聽anymore.
The malls close, but聽the stores don't always follow suit.
While the proliferation of mall closures聽does put pressure on the smaller retailers who rely on foot traffic inside the mall, the big box and departments stores that typically anchor malls often have their own separate entrances and are unlikely to budge. Shoppers hoping that聽major players聽like聽,听,听听补苍诲聽will retreat to Black Friday are likely to be disappointed.
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