Confirmed Stores Open On Thanksgiving Day 2018
- Bass Pro Shops – 8 AM to 6 PM
- Bealls Florida – 5 PM to 11 PM
- Belk – 4 PM to 1 AM
- Best Buy – 5PM to 1AM
- Big Lots – 7AM to Midnight
- Cabela’s – 8 AM to 6 PM
- CVS – Regular Business Hours
- Dick’s Sporting Goods – 6 PM to 2 AM
- Dunham’s Sports – 3PM
- Dollar General – 7 AM to 10 PM
- Fred’s – 9AM to 5 PM
- JCPenney – Thursday 2PM to Friday 10 PM
- Kohl’s – 5 PM
- Kmart – 6 AM to Midnight
- Macy’s – 5 PM to 2 AM
- Meijer- 6 AM through Friday
- New York & Company – Open; Hours TBA
- Old Navy – Thursday 3 PM to Friday 10 PM
- Rite Aid – TBD
- Sears – 6 PM
- Shopko – Thursday 2 PM to Friday 10 PM for Stores; Until 2 PM for doorbusters
- Stage Stores – 1 PM to 1 AM
- Target – 5 PM to 1 AM
- Victoria’s Secret – Varies by Location
- Walgreens – Regular Business Hours
- Walmart – 6 PM
We confirmed Macy’s to be open on Thanksgiving 2018 with seven locations across the United States on Thursday, October 11, 2018. Please see the full report on our Macy’s Black Friday page.
Stores Predicted To Be Open on Thanksgiving Day 2018
- GameStop – 4 p.m.
You can review the Thanksgiving Day 2017 Openings List to see all of the stores who opened last year and their hours. Please note, the above list is only a sample of our predictions for 2018. We will post the complete confirmed list in November.
Thanksgiving Hours Information
Since Thanksgiving and Black Friday have merged in recent years, Turkey Day hours are often a bit confusing. In many instances, stores will open on Thursday and run their sales overnight into Black Friday. In other cases, stores will open on Thanksgiving, close for a few hours, and then open again at some point on Friday.
In order to clear up any confusion, we will post complete Thanksgiving and Black Friday hours if the store opens on Thursday and remains open all night into Friday. If the store opens on Thanksgiving and closes at some point on Thursday, we will only list the Thanksgiving hours. Complete hours for every store can be found on our Black Friday 2018 Store Hours page.
Most Major Retailers Are Likely to Open on Thanksgiving Day
As ShopperTrak notes, foot traffic on Thanksgiving was still pretty strong last year. While there was a slight decline overall, there was an actual increase in foot traffic on Thanksgiving for outlet stores and malls.
For that reason, we expect the biggest retailers — Walmart, Best Buy, Target, Kohl’s, Macy’s, JCPenney, GameStop, and Sears — to all remain open on Thanksgiving Day 2018. Until last year, GameStop was actually closed on Thanksgiving, but it made the decision to change things up and actually open its doors. Because of Amazon and other factors, stores like Walmart and Best Buy are basically forced to open. Stores like Best Buy will actually have some of its best in-store doorbusters on Thursday, which is also true for other retailers.
On the other hand, major stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s are always closed on Thanksgiving, and it does not appear either retailer will be open for 2018. Additionally, major office supply stores like Staples and Office Depot & OfficeMax are expected to close on Thanksgiving as usual.
While there is tremendous pressure — and even boycotts — for major stores to close on Thanksgiving, the Walmarts and Amazons of the world are unlikely to change in the current landscape. According to our Thanksgiving Shopping Survey from last year, only 16.22 percent of Americans were actually in favor of Thanksgiving openings, and that figure seems to be dropping every single year.
Stores Will Be Reluctant to Provide Opening Status and Hours Until November
For stores who do open on Thanksgiving, the hours seem to be getting earlier every single year. Kmart and Meijer are likely to both open at 6 a.m., while Walmart will probably hold off until 6 p.m. at the latest. Because of the competitive nature, retailers will likely be reluctant to announce their Thanksgiving status and hours until the last minute. That means we are unlikely to have a complete confirmed list until at least the second week of November. As usual, we will report all hours and leaks as they come in, so keep an eye on this post for the latest confirmations.
Despite The Public Backlash, Thanksgiving is a Very Profitable Day for Retailers
Americans generally dislike stores being open on Thanksgiving, but they are still spending billions of dollars on the day. As discussed in our Black Friday and Thanksgiving Spending Predictions, there is likely to be $3.35 billion in online spending on Thanksgiving. In-store Thanksgiving spending data from last year is not available, but the figure is also in the billions, which means Turkey Day shopping is not going away.
Major retailers will still begin their Black Friday sales on Thursday, with many remaining open the entire night. If you want some of this year’s doorbusters, you are likely going to have to shop on Thanksgiving. You may even have to finish dinner early and shop in person for some of absolute best in-store only doorbusters.