CVS and Old Navy among stores that are planning to be open on Thanksgiving

Black Friday, often one of the biggest shopping weekends on the calendar, is going to look a little different this year, with a number of major retailers electing to keep their doors closed over Thanksgiving.

CVS, Dollar General, Rite Aid, Walgreens, and Whole Foods Market will remain open over the weekend, while other large stores like Costco, Home Depot, Target, and Walmart will be closed, according to a list compiled by People magazine.

While numerous shoppers flock to stores during a normal Black Friday in search of holiday deals, some companies have elected to keep their doors closed, owing to factors ranging pandemic safety, to avoiding congestion, to the rise of online shopping.

"Throughout the pandemic, our associates have been nothing short of heroic in how they have stepped up to serve our customers and their communities," Dacona Smith, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Walmart US, has said of the chain’s decision not to be open over Black Friday. "Closing our stores on Thanksgiving Day is one way we’re saying ‘thank you’ to our teams for their dedication and hard work this year. We hope everyone will take the opportunity to be with their loved ones during what’s always a special time."

Many retailers skipped out on last year’s Black Friday as well, hoping to avoid big crowds during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic upended shopping in a number of ways, encouraging record numbers of buyers to look online for their purchases, and physical retail stores to extend their promotional calendars in response.

“We’re seeing a fundamental change in the promotional calendar,” Steve Sadove, former chairman and CEO of Saks, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” last November. “I think the retailers have done a brilliant job extending the season, and that will play out as we go into next year.”

Extended promotions weren’t enough to protect physical retail stores from huge changes in consumer behaviour. According to one analysis, traffic in stores over Black Friday 2020 was down more than 50 per cent.

Meanwhile, online spending hit an all-time record over last Black Friday, surging 21.6 per cent, according to Adobe Analytics.

The rise of e-commerce companies like Amazon and direct-to-consumer brands was already threatening malls and physical retail stores, and the pandemic only accelerated this trend, causing numerous stores to close inside malls and others to convert retail space into storage, so as to service growing online orders.

Now that significant numbers of people have been vaccinated and most coronavirus restrictions have been lifted, however, consumer spending in-person may be bouncing back.

As of June, the number of mall visitors has exceeded pre-pandemic levels by 5 per cent, according to a study from transportation data firm INRIX, a potential result of pent up demand from the previous year of lockdowns.

Even before the pandemic, there were growing calls to end Black Friday, with arguments that it led to overworked retail employees and even encouraged violence as shoppers battled for deals.