It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Shopping Season... or Not?

We are now approaching the time of year that it is appropriate to start putting up your Christmas lights and playing Christmas music without getting judgement from your neighbors. That's right - this week is the week of Thanksgiving! The semi-weird holiday that is surrounded by turkey and family and does not focus on the roots of the holiday (eventually Cancel Culture will catch up, but we shall see). Since 2021 has been the year of change, there will be some major changes this year. 

For example, Chick-fil-A will be closing its doors on a Saturday this year. You guessed why: Christmas falls on a Saturday. It will be the first time in years that the Christian based chain will be closed for two days in a row. For the record, the only non-Sunday holidays Chick-fil-A is closed for are Christmas and Thanksgiving. The Chick-fil-A website also mentions Easter Sunday, but as Chick-fil-A is also regularly closed on Sundays, that day off isn't very special for employees.

Chick-fil-A isn't the only organization making changes; shopping giant Target is also moving some policies around. Starting this year Target will be closed all day for Thanksgiving. That's right: there will be no "early" Black Friday shopping this year. Surprisingly, this is not the first year that Target closed for Thanksgiving. Target closed last year on Thanksgiving too due to the pandemic. Target has also had some interesting changes and one of them is that they will no longer be carrying trading cards. The blame for this probably is somewhere between TikTok and Youtube, but essentially there have been issues with stealing, and in some cases violence due to the increased value of the special cards. Target decided to get rid of them altogether to prevent the drama before it can happen.

Oh, and you may have noticed that we said you can't do your Black Friday shopping early in quotes, and that is because you actually can. Instead of running sales on Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday sales on November 21, and they will run until November 27. Well, you can get everything except the new Pokemon expansion pack.

Target is not the only retailer who will be closed for Thanksgiving. Walmart has joined the party and will also not be open on Thanksgiving. In fact, other companies have followed suit, so you may want to check and see who will be open before you decide to do your post-Thanksgiving shopping. As of right now the other retailers who will be closed are Best Buy, Costo, Macy's, and Bed Bath & Beyond. This closing practice started due to COVID and since sales were not negatively impacted over the close, a lot of retailers have decided to close on Thanksgiving this year.

We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and safe shopping!