Thanksgiving is supposed to be a holiday you celebrate with family. Thankfully, Target will now join other businesses in recognizing this.
The retail giant will not be open this Thanksgiving, extending one of the few pandemic measures that ought to be permanent. Thanks largely to online shopping, Target CEO Brian Cornell promised that the company won’t return to Thanksgiving store hours “when the pandemic finally subsides.”
Walmart, Macy’s, and Kohl’s are among the stores that will be closed on Thanksgiving this year. Given that the commercialization of the winter season has turned Thanksgiving into a preview for Christmas in recent years, it is a welcome development that Target and other stores that can afford it will be letting employees spend it with their families instead of people scouring the aisles for deals.
We can hope this will also encourage those would-be shoppers to stay home with their families, too. The ubiquity of online shopping has been one of the few bright spots during the pandemic, and it is certainly good to see it will reap benefits beyond this year.
Thanksgiving is a holiday for family, food, and football. It is a time to be thankful for what, and who, you have and for our blessings as a nation. With the pandemic last year and the inflation and supply chain issues this year, thankfulness and celebrating with family are more important than they have been in years. Thanks to Target’s decision, and to online shopping, a few hundred thousand more people will be able to celebrate Thanksgiving the way it should be celebrated.
