Dallas Morning News
Written by: Maria Halkias
One of Dallas’ premier malls is giving up on the retail industry’s experiment to carve out shopping time along with turkey feasting on Thanksgiving Day.
Stores inside Galleria Dallas, under new management this year, will not open Thursday. The exception will be the mall’s major national anchors, which will be accessible only through store external entrances.
“The bulk of our retailers feel that their core shoppers would prefer to spend Thanksgiving with family and prefer to do their holiday shopping beginning on Black Friday,” said Angie Freed, general manager at Galleria Dallas.
Department stores and big box chains can draw long lines of shoppers with special deals, freebies and discounts on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. Others such as Costco, REI and Nordstrom have never tried it and often earn praise from those leading a backlash against Thanksgiving Day shopping.
While shopping on the holiday began as a post-recession experiment to boost consumer spending, Thanksgiving Day still isn’t among retail’s 10 biggest shopping days, according to research firm ShopperTrak. Black Friday tops that list. And the mall all-nighter, which was a thing for several years, is only being offered this year at two shopping centers in Dallas-Fort Worth: Allen Premium Outlets and Tanger Outlets in Fort Worth.
To Galleria management, forcing all stores to open didn’t make sense, Freed said.
“We want to make the season productive and profitable for all of our retailers,” she said. “We’re glad to give our retailers the opportunity to remain closed on Thanksgiving Day so that everyone gets time with their family on the holiday.”
Galleria stores choosing…