Times, they have changed again.

Remember a few years ago, many major retailers decided to go to places where there were no stores before and started Black Friday trading on Thanksgiving Day? This decision caused mixed emotions because some people were happy to leave home early and away from relatives, and some were unhappy that retail appeared before family and employees had to shorten the Thanksgiving gathering so they could go to work.

Earlier this year, Target announced that they will no longer open any stores on Thanksgiving. This week they officially announced that they will add an exclamation mark on it to say that they will always be closed on Thanksgiving from now on.

The retail giant took this move after choosing not to open some other retail chains due to the pandemic last year, instead making large sales online over time. This is to limit a large number of people during the pandemic and to give employees some time after they have experienced COVID-19.

Retail sales in November and December last year increased by more than 8.2% compared to 2019, considering that the National Retail Federation predicts that this holiday season may even break last year's record, as sales are expected to climb to between 8.5% and 10.5%.

After Target takes this move, it will be interesting to see if other stores will follow suit and close on Thanksgiving. As we said before, times have changed again.