The GameStop stores reportedly will be not open for Black Friday 2016 sales on Thanksgiving Day.
Several stores decided to change things up for Black Friday last year. GameStop, Staples and REI kept their stores closed on Thanksgiving Day. The retailers argued that they wanted to make Thanksgiving Day a Holiday for everyone again, including their employees. REI even went so far to cancel Black Friday completely and motivated people to go hiking on Black Friday instead of shopping.
A new report says that GameStop will again not be open its stores on Thanksgiving Day. GameStop will be joined by Home Depot, Lowe's, BJ's, Patagonia, Jo-An Fabrics, Nordstrom and Costco say the sources of BFAds.
GameStop's EVP and President Mike Buskey said last year about the decision to close on Thanksgiving Day: “We believe strongly that our customers and associates should have the opportunity to spend the Thanksgiving holiday relaxing with family and friends, and not worrying with the stress of where to find the best shopping deals. We know this is in stark contrast to what many other retailers are doing, but we are taking a stance to protect family time during this important holiday.”
To keep GameStop stores closed again would mean that GameStop's holiday sales have not been hurt by the decision to not open on Thanksgiving Day.
Thanksgiving Day is evolving into the online Black Friday sales event as more and more stores launch Black Friday sales online on Thanksgiving Day or even on Wednesday before the Holiday.
It is not clear yet how wide-spread the trend of keeping stores closed on Thanksgiving Day will be this year. There will though again a series of stores that will kick of Black Friday 2016 sales in stores on Thanksgiving Day. The Kohl's Black Friday 2016 sale is supposed to launch at 6pm on Thanksgiving Day according to the BFAds report. That is the same time the store opened last year according to our Black Friday store opening hours list.
Stores opened as early as 6am for Black Friday on Thanksgiving Day. The most common opening hour was 6pm though. Kmart and Meijer have been the early birds at 6am Thanksgiving Day morning. ToysRUs and Best Buy opened at 5pm. Walmart, Target, Kohl's Macy's and Sears opened at 6pm.
Many will welcome the retreat of Black Friday from Thanksgiving. It has been a controversial topic for years now. Sports retailer REI was riding a positive PR wave with last year's alternative Black Friday suggestion. It is not known yet, if REI will skip Black Friday again this year.
Find everything we know about Black Friday 2016 in our Black Friday 2016 Guide.
