More stores are staying closed on Thanksgiving this year

On Thanksgiving, I love to enjoy precious family time and all of the food we worked so hard to prepare instead of rushing out the door before dessert is served to get a jumpstart on shopping. Looks like major retailers agree.

This year more brick-and-mortar retailers than ever before are closing for the holiday or opening at a later hour so that employees can have more time off to celebrate with their families.

We couldn’t be more grateful for this shift from consumerism back to the true meaning of the holiday.

So far, at least 67 stores have confirmed they will close on Thanksgiving Day, and—even more shocking—some may stay closed on Black Friday as well, according to BestBlackFriday.com.

For the third year in a row, outdoor company REI will pay their 12,000 employees for both days but not require them to come into the store. They also use the hashtag #OptOutside to encourage customers to delay the holiday shopping madness and spend time with loved ones outdoors.

“We are doing this again to unite people and to find common ground in the outdoors,” says REI CEO Jerry Stritzke. “Right now, I think people are looking for a moment to take a breath, reground themselves and come together.”

Here’s the full rundown of retailers who will shutter their doors for Thanksgiving (as of publication time):

• A.C. Moore
• Abt Electronics
• Academy Sports + Outdoors
• Ace Hardware
• At Home
• Babies R Us
• BJ’s Wholesale Club
• Blain’s Farm and Fleet
• Burlington
• Cost Plus World Market
• Costco
• Craft Warehouse
• Crate and Barrel
• Dillard’s
• dressbarn
• DSW – Designer Shoe Warehouse
• Ethan Allen
• Gardner-White Furniture
• Guitar Center
• H&M;
• Half Price Books
• Harbor Freight
• Hobby Lobby
• Home Depot
• HomeGoods
• Homesense
• IKEA
• JOANN Fabric and Craft Stores
• Jos. A. Bank
• La-Z-Boy (all corporately owned stores)
• Lowe’s
• Marshalls
• Mattress Firm
• Micro Center
• Mills Fleet Farm
• Music & Arts
• Neiman Marcus
• Nordstrom
• Nordstrom Rack
• Office Depot and OfficeMax
• Outdoor Research (closed Black Friday too)
• P.C. Richard & Son
• Party City
• Patagonia
• Petco
• PetSmart
• Pier 1 Imports
• Publix
• Raymour & Flanigan Furniture
• REI (closed Black Friday too)
• Sam’s Club
• Sears Hometown Stores
• Sears Outlet
• Shoe Carnival
• Sierra Trading Post
• Sportsman’s Warehouse
• Sprint (Corporate & Dealer Owned Stores; Mall Kiosks May Open)
• Staples
• Stein Mart
• Sur La Table
• The Container Store
• The Original Mattress Factory
• TJ Maxx
• Tractor Supply
• Trollbeads
• Von Maur
• West Marine

It will still be the busiest shopping weekend of the season.

A new survey released by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics reveals that 69% of Americans—an estimated 164 million people—plan to shop during Thanksgiving weekend. Of those, 20% plan to shop on Thanksgiving Day (32 million) but Black Friday will remain the busiest time, with 70% planning to shop then (115 million).

Just a few years ago, scoring incredible deals on holiday gifts meant that you had to wake up at an ungodly hour and stand in line for hours at a brick-and-mortar location on Black Friday. Now that seasonal discounts have become more spread out from the days leading up to Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, the holiday-shopping process has undergone a shift from a sprint to a marathon.

Thankfully, we can nab plenty of bargains browsing online at home in the comfort of our PJs while indulging in leftovers from our family feast. In fact, Cyber Monday was the most lucrative day in the history of U.S. e-commerce in 2016, exceeding Black Friday’s online sales by $110 million.

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