Walmart to close its US stores on Thanksgiving — again

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart says it will close its U.S. stores on Thanksgiving for the second consecutive year.

The nation’s largest retailer and biggest private employer said Friday that it wants to give workers time off for all their “hard work and dedication” to the company.

It follows the decision by Target Corp., which announced back in January it would be closing its stores again on the annual late-November turkey feast.

The move shows how the pandemic will have lasting effects on the retail industry’s strategies even as the health crisis ebbs.

For almost a decade, Black Friday store shopping had kicked off with big crowds on Thanksgiving and expanded into Friday.