Tabby Fitzgerald
First, happy Thanksgiving.
Now: When is the best weekend for holiday shopping? This weekend! With Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, there are plenty of opportunities to get your Christmas shopping done early this year.
Many stores will offer Black Friday deals this holiday season. According to CNBC, Black Friday retail store shopping dropped 28.3% in 2020 compared to its previous pre-pandemic levels. But that number was up 47.5% in 2021 compared to 2020. Online retailers were still having less success than in past years, only ringing up $8.9 billion in sales compared to $9 billion in 2020.
During the pandemic, most retailers decided to close their doors on Thanksgiving despite a trend toward opening on the holiday. After receiving positive feedback from the public in 2020, some retailers like Target announced they will never again be open on Thanksgiving.
Here’s a list of major retailers’ opening hours Friday, according to The New York Times and their corporate websites:
Best Buy
5 a.m.
CVS
Regular hours
Home Depot
6 a.m.
Kohl’s
5 a.m.
Macy’s
6 a.m.
Starbucks
Hours vary by location
Target
7 a.m.
Walmart
Regular hours
Greenwood Park Mall
6 a.m.
Castleton Square Mall
6 a.m.
Circle Center Mall
10 a.m.
Fashion Mall at Keystone
8 a.m.
Hamilton Town Center
6 a.m.
Meijer
6 a.m.
Small Business Saturday
Many small businesses will be participating in Small BusinessSaturday. It’s a day that was created to encourage people to shop locally. In 2021, American Express saw that Small Business Saturday accounted for $23.3 billion that in U.S. consumer spending, with 51 million shoppers participating.
Make sure you Google your local small businesses for hours and to see if they are participating.
Cyber Monday
Last but not least, Cyber Monday! If in-person shopping isn’t your thing, you might want to wait until Monday to get the best online deals. Deal News offers a list of the best online retailers to buy from, such as Target and Amazon.
