It used to be that the idea of being open for business on a traditional family holiday was unheard of. Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and others were a day to spend with your loved ones, not to go to work. Then, in the 80s, “Black Friday,” as we know it today, was invented, and our lives haven’t been the same since.

With the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade bringing thousands of people to the front of their store, Macy’s thought it was a waste for them to be closed. They started opening their doors and letting people in for special deals to get an early start on Christmas shopping.

K-Mart took advantage of their giant Black Friday sales and opened at 7pm on Thanksgiving night to give people a head start on the Black Friday savings.

Walmart started opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving, and Black Friday deals began earlier and earlier. Mobs outside of toy and electronics stores would line up, and people would even spend the night in front of the stores to be first in line to get the doorbuster deals that drove so many people into the buildings.

Then came 2020, and everything changed. Not only did retail change, but the whole world changed. One of the things we learned from the pandemic was that we wanted to spend more time with the people we loved on holidays, so many of these retailers decided to remain closed for the entire day.

With the popularity of online shopping and exclusively online retailers, the need to be inconvenienced and spend the night in the cold in front of a store was no longer necessary to get a great deal on a TV, laptop, or the hottest toy on the market. Now, many of these great deals are available 24/7 online.

While many of the big box stores have already announced that they will be closed again this year at Thanksgiving, we can still count on many of our grocery stores to be open, which will be nice for when we mess up the turkey and need to get a bunch of frozen pizzas instead. Albertsons, Fred Meyer, and WinCo will all be there for us in that time of need. 25 Treasure Valley stores, however, will be closed for business on Thanksgiving Day.