A week after the Mall of America announced it was keeping the behemoth shopping Mecca in suburban Minneapolis closed this Thanksgiving, a Tennessee-based shopping center-owner has made the same call for its malls.
“CBL & Associates, which owns or has a hand in 89 regional malls and open-air shopping centers, will close the doors at nearly all of its properties until 6 a.m. Black Friday,” reported CNBC on Wednesday.
That doesn’t mean all the stores in those malls must remain closed until Friday morning, however. CNBC explained that “department stores, movie theaters, restaurants” and other stores at enclosed-mall locations that have “an exterior entrance” remain free to open up on Thursday, Nov. 24.
“All access to the centers’ common areas will be restricted,” the business-news network explained. “CBL’s open-air centers will also be closed; however since all of those tenants have exterior entrances, they will have the option to stay open.”
Fine print aside, it still means a full holiday for thousands of employees at companies located at CBL shopping centers.
“We think that for our employees and for the store employees, they deserve the day off and to be able to spend the day with their families,” company CEO Stephen Lebovitz told CNBC in an interview. “Thanksgiving is a special holiday, and it’s unfair for them not to be able to enjoy it like everyone else can.”
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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