BISMARCK -- Kirkwood Mall will no longer open its common area stores on Thanksgiving Day joining a long list of malls that will be closed.
The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., and West Acres in Fargo also have announced they are closing the doors for the day.
Mall owner CBL & Associates Properties Inc. announced it won’t open the main mall doors in Bismarck, Minot and 71 other mall properties until 6 a.m. on Black Friday.
Anchor stores, such as Target, have external doors and will be able to open whenever they choose.
CEO Stephen Lebovitz told CNBC that tenants have realized opening on Thanksgiving Day only spreads sales over another day rather than adding to total sales.
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“We want to bring back the excitement of Black Friday shopping as the true start of the holiday shopping season and allow our employees, retailer and shoppers to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with their families,” Lebovitz said in a statement. “After evaluating feedback from our mall employees, retail partners and input from our shoppers, we determined that this was the best decision for our properties.”
Kirkwood Mall opened on Thanksgiving for the first time in 2013 and did so again in 2015.
In 2015, 47 of Kirkwood Mall’s retailers opened their doors. Among the handful that stayed closed were two anchor stores, Scheels and I.Keating Furniture World.