These major retailers aren’t opening on Thanksgiving

Black Friday holiday sales start earlier every year with many retail stores opening on Thanksgiving night to give shoppers a head start.

Well, finally, we can point to a positive change resulting from the pandemic. Austin-based coupon consolidator RetailMeNot compiled a list of two dozen national retailers that do not plan to open on Thanksgiving day, mostly in response to a lack of demand. RetailMeNot survey results suggest 88% of shoppers do not plan to do in-store shopping for Black Friday deals.

Not surprisingly, it was Walmart that started the trend of opening before Black Friday. But it was also the mega big-box retailer that first made the call to close its 4,000 U.S. stores—including seven in Austin—on Thanksgiving this year.

Here are the other national businesses keeping doors closed on Turkey Day 2020 (Nov. 26 this year):

• Academy Sports + Outdoors
• Bath & Body Works
• Bed Bath & Beyond
• Best Buy
• BJ's
• Boscov's
• Costco
• Dick's Sporting Goods
• Foot Locker
• GameStop
• The Home Depot
• JCPenney
• Kohl's
• Lamps Plus
• Macy's
• Office Depot/OfficeMax
• REI
• Simon Property Group
• Target
• Ulta
• UnderArmour
• The Outlet Resource Group
• Walmart
• Williams-Sonoma

However, many stores are still opening for Black Friday in-person sales—but not as many as usual. RetailMeNot compiled a list of national shops that have confirmed plans for the biggest shopping day of the year. Many business chains are letting local stores make the call based on COVID-19 spread in their respective area.