Mall of America Is Officially Closed for Thanksgiving
In 2023, Mall of America continues to be closed on Thanksgiving.
The nation's largest shopping mall, the Mall of America, will be closed this year on Thanksgiving. As detailed on the retail landmark's official website, the shopping center in Bloomington, Minnesota, will be closed all day on Thursday. They will re-open for Black Friday at 7 a.m. local time. The mall will be open each day through the holiday season until Christmas when they will be totally closed once again.
This continues Mall of America's philosophy around the holiday from recent years. In 2012, Mall of America began being open on the annual holiday. However, the mall told The Associated Press in 2016 that they would like to offer their workers some time to be with their families on Thanksgiving.
"We've been talking about this for months, looking at the numbers, looking at the pros and the cons," the mall's senior vice president of marketing and business development, Jill Renslow stated at the time. "We're excited to give this day back to our employees so they can celebrate with their families."
Because the mall will be closed, the decision means that most of the 1,200 people employed directly for the shopping center will get the holiday off, as reported by Star Tribune when the initial closure decision was made.
Black Friday is typically the biggest shopping day of the year, but especially pre-pandemic, Thanksgiving shopping became more of a tradition for many families across the country. Over the Thursday to Friday holiday weekend, around 400,000 people were making visits to the Mall of America.
"By closing on Thanksgiving, we're confident we'll still get those strong numbers throughout the Black Friday weekend," Renslow explained back in 2016.
Do you agree with the Mall of America's decision to close on Thanksgiving Day?