The Mall of America Will Be Closed on Thanksgiving
In recent years, stores have extended Black Friday by opening up on the evening of Thanksgiving. The Mall of America followed that trend as well. But that will not be the case in 2016.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that the Mall of America sent a memo to employees on Wednesday morning informing them that the mall will be closed all day on Thanksgiving.
However, the closing of the mall only means certain operations will not run. Nickelodeon Universe, which is the mall's indoor amusement park will be closed and the mall's movie theater will also be closed.
In the 24 year existence of the indoor amusement park, this will be the first time that it will be closed on Thanksgiving.
Despite that, each individual store in the mall has the option to remain open on Thanksgiving. However officials at the mall tell the Star Tribune that they expect most of the stores to follow the lead of the mall itself and remain closed.
The mall has about 15,000 employees and a majority of them will likely be able to spend time with their families on Thanksgiving Day.
The mall does have a charity event on Thanksgiving morning though and because some stores may choose to remain open, certain security and maintenance staff will still have to work.
The Mall of America will open to the public at 5am on the morning of Black Friday.