7 Thanksgiving controversies: Date change, mentions of God, ‘Day of Mourning’
Open or close
For years, much debate has existed within the business community over whether stores should be open or closed on Thanksgiving Day, with big name brands taking diverse positions on the issue.
In the days leading up to Thanksgiving 2014, for example, Kmart, Macy’s, Target, RadioShack and Walmart announced that they were going to be open on the holiday, while Costco, GameStop, Marshalls and T. J. Maxx announced that they would be closed.
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“For us, it’s a matter of principle,” said GameStop President Tony Bartel at the time, as quoted by The New York Times. “We have a phrase around here that we use a lot — it’s called ‘protecting the family.’ We want our associates to enjoy their complete holidays.”
“Even if we lose some ground to competitors, we are making it corporate principle — we have committed to associates that we will not open on Thanksgiving.”
For the first 155 years of its existence, Macy’s stayed closed on Thanksgiving, but that changed in 2013, when the company announced that it would open on Thursday evening in part to accommodate Black Friday crowds.
