Target reveals Thanksgiving, Black Friday plans

WASHINGTON — Target unveiled its Thanksgiving and Black Friday store hours on Tuesday as the holiday shopping season approaches. 

For a fifth consecutive year, Target will close its stores on Thanksgiving Day. The retailer, along with competitors like Walmart, used to have limited hours on the holiday but began closing their doors in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

While in-store shopping will be paused on Thanksgiving, customers can still shop online or via the Target app. Doors will reopen early the next morning at 6 a.m. local time on Black Friday, Nov. 29, a day once synonymous with the start of holiday shopping but now part of a season-long stretch of deals.

Target has expanded Black Friday into a week-long event, running deals from Nov. 24 to Nov. 30. This longer sales window gives shoppers additional opportunities to find discounts as Black Friday sales have increasingly become an early-season staple, with many promotions beginning as early as October.

Beyond Black Friday, Target will extend its store hours for the holiday season. 

Starting Nov. 30 and running through Dec. 23, stores will open at 7 a.m. and remain open until midnight, giving shoppers more time to browse for holiday gifts and essentials.

The term “Black Friday” in relation to shopping the day after Thanksgiving is most often traced to Philadelphia where police had to deal with large crowds who thronged the streets of the city before the annual Army-Navy game and to take advantage of sales. According to the Dec. 18, 1961, issue of Public Relations News, a newsletter, it became customary for police to refer to post-Thanksgiving shopping as Black Friday and Black Saturday because of the headaches they created.