Does Target closing on Thanksgiving mean more families get ‘Black Friday Eve’ back?

Here’s your chance to reclaim Thanksgiving for your family — not just from COVID-19, but from Consumerism-21.

With Target’s bold announcement that it’s closing for Thanksgiving for the indefinite future, a huge retailer is stepping away from your holiday table. It won’t be tempting you or your relatives to gobble up the turkey and rush into an unseemly battle for bargains — on what used to be a sacrosanct day of counting blessings instead of savings.

Major retailers such as Walmart, Costco, Best Buy, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Kohl’s and Macy’s were also to close Thursday, though Target has pledged to do so on Thanksgivings to come.

Reprieve! Reprieve! The covetousness had gotten so bad that Thanksgiving had become known as “Black Friday Eve,” with workers leaving or completely missing their family feasts. Has the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting focus on workers’ needs and wants, changed all that?

Even the biggest fans of capitalism, myself included, certainly hope so.

“I think it’s great that there are retailers that are deciding that they’re going to prioritize family time prior to the huge push for the holiday season,” says Tracey Osborne Oltjen, president and CEO of the Overland Park Chamber, heralding Target’s decision. “Everyone is looking at different priorities these days. So this is a nice move for them.”

Such a choice is actually harder for revenue-rich big-box stores, she says, since their big chain competitors can feast on a closed rival’s lost sales. Small retail shops aren’t really expected to be open on Thanksgiving anyway, she rightly notes.

Will this sentiment spread? “Target gives Thanksgiving Day back to workers: Will other retailers follow?” asks an NBC News headline. Only time will tell. This year, a decision to close may be easier because workers are still at a premium and those on the job need to be nurtured. But with online sales raging, and Black Friday sales available well in advance, there’s less pressure to be open on Thanksgiving.

“We all know that it is difficult to recruit and retain,” Osborne Oltjen says. “Anything you can do to make the workplace a more desirable one for many of these employees who are working in retail and hospitality. You’re heading into a really busy season.”

Restaurants are a somewhat different matter, as many folks have turned to eating out on Thanksgiving and leaving the stacks of dishes to someone else. But Bill Teel, executive director of the Greater Kansas City Restaurant Association, sees a possible societal shift happening nonetheless.

“Just a shift more toward family and away from work — that maybe work is not as important as we thought it was in the past,” he says.

A lot depends on whether Target’s determination to stay closed remains strong in the years to come, and whether it spreads to other retail and even restaurants. “We’ll see,” Teel says. “I do think, even on the restaurant side, there’s more of an emphasis now on giving employees more time off, trying to cater more to employees’ needs — to try to help them with their family needs, to try to be a little more understanding, to try to give them a little more leeway on a lot of things. I just kind of feel things heading in that direction.”

When Teel grew up, he says, it was all about doing whatever was needed at work, to keep pushing ahead on the job. “I don’t sense that so much anymore.”

Can families really reclaim Thanksgiving? The big test will come in succeeding years, when staffing shortages subside and employers have less incentive to close.

The duty to safeguard Thanksgiving will then shift to us.