A Chicago shopping mainstay reportedly plans to break tradition and open on Thanksgiving Day for the first time in its 155-year history. The doors at Macy’s Chicago flagship store on State Street will open at 8 p.m. on Turkey Day. Nesita Kwan reports.
A Chicago shopping mainstay reportedly plans to break tradition and open on Thanksgiving Day for the first time in its 155-year history.
The doors at Macy's Chicago flagship store on State Street will open at 8 p.m. on Turkey Day, the Chicago Sun-Times reports, which means more shopping time for customers and longer hours for holiday workers.
Last year, Macy's opted to open at midnight to kick off Black Friday, but this year, a number of employees told the Sun-Times some of them will be called in to work earlier that day to work an overnight shift.
The flagship would stay open from 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving until 8 p.m. on Black Friday, employees told the paper. Stores in the Water Tower Place and Old Orchard Some also would open at 8 p.m.
Some shoppers said they see this as sacrilege, chipping away at a sacred family holiday. Others said they see it as a good way to get a jump on Black Friday sales, not to mention boosting the economy and the paychecks of workers who might want the extra hours.
"That's the most important thing, I'm thinking, is people working," shopper Rafael Negron said.
"If that's what people want to do, they want to buy clothes on their holiday, let them do it," another shopper said.
This isn't the first year of Thanksgiving Day sales. Last year Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, KMart and the Fifth Avenue Lord & Taylor flagship were among stores open on Thanksgiving Day. Gap stores invited shoppers for bargains from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
