Trend of retailers closing on Thanksgiving growing

Though the thick of the holiday shopping season is still six weeks away, retailers are already installing Christmas displays with more coming on each and every day.

We looked at another growing trend: the increasing number of stores that will be closed on Thanksgiving Day.

From big box retailers, to major department stores, to even local hardware outlets, closed for Thanksgiving signs will be abundant this year.

By the most recent accounts and reports, 66 chains, including Costco, Sam’s Club, Home Depot, Loew's, Staples, Ace Hardware, True Value, Bloomingdale's, DSW, H&M, Marshall's, Neiman Marcus, Saks, Nordstrom, TJ Maxx and many, many others will wait for Black Friday.

"I think they've gotten as much or more push back from consumers as they have from employees. Being open on Thanksgiving has always been controversial.  Frankly, not a lot of people go out for Thanksgiving and online shopping is really where consumers really want to shop on that day," says Kit Yarrow a nationally known consumer psychologist and author.

Yarrow says, besides giving employees an important holiday off, financial considerations also figure in deeply, "I think, for the majority of retailers, what they're looking at are really slim margins on this holiday.  They have to pay their staff additional wages.  They're really not packed with consumers shopping."

Of course, the closed stores' internet operations will be in full swing with deals. In fact, the nation's largest mall, the Mall of America in Minnesota, will be closed giving the 15,000 people who work there a day off. Four malls in St. Louis have decided to be closed. But those that do stay open will have far less competition.

"Some stores that are open; those stores, I think will enjoy, you know, being the only game in town," says Yarrow.

Despite the Thanksgiving closures, retailers expect as much as a 10 percent increase in sales for the overall holiday period.