By Danny Rubin
Thanksgiving used to be a sacred American holiday, and no company would even imagine opening the doors to do business.
Slowly, Turkey Day has morphed into “Gray Thursday,” in which major chains flip on the lights during the holiday to make a few extra bucks. At the same time, several other retailers decided to stay closed and give its employees the time off.
Among those companies: Trader Joe’s, Burlington Coat Factory, TJ Maxx, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Costco, Home Depot, Dillards, and Marshall’s. The full story from ABC:
While companies like Target and Macy’s allowed the masses to pour in on Thanksgiving, the ones who stayed shut raked in a fortune…of goodwill. Here’s some of the chatter from Twitter:
So happy to see that some companies were closed on Thanksgiving! Nordstrom, Dillard’s, Home Depot, Costco, BJs, T.J. Maxx, Marshalls & Ross.
— ♥ Amethyst ♥ (@AmethystWings) November 30, 2013
Thank you to all these stores NOT open #Thanksgiving Day – http://t.co/1x2uUO04rF ACMoore, Apple, Bloomingdales, Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc
— Coreen Tossona (@ctmarcom) November 27, 2013
@WSBbelinda Kudos to Costco, Home-Depot, TJRoss, Nordstrom, PC Richards & Chick-fil-A for staying closed on Thanksgiving.
— Dave Hidding (@thinkofdave) November 27, 2013
So the question: is it worth being open on Thanksgiving to make millions…or remain closed to win over a million hearts?
Since we at RCG are in the PR business — and reputation management is our game — we opt for the latter. Let employees enjoy the holiday, and watch the altruistic business decision pay dividends in the weeks and months ahead.
What do you think? We’d love to hear your comments!
