Is the post office open on Thanksgiving?
It’s Thanksgiving and Americans, including your local postal workers, will be gathering together to celebrate and give their gratitude for all they have.
Across the United States, Americans are getting ready for Thanksgiving, heading out to visit friends and family or to make a last-minute run to the grocery store or get in some forgotten errand like getting to the post office. Unfortunately, if you don’t get there by closing time on Wednesday, you’ll have to wait until Friday. That or drop off what you are planning to send in a post office box as like all other official holidays, post offices will be closed on Thursday, 23 November as well as all other government offices.
What will surely be good news is that many places of work will be closed on Thursday too due to the federal holiday for Thanksgiving. This should give families the opportunity to gather together and enjoy the holiday.
What holidays does the post office close for?
- New Year’s Day: 1 January
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day: 18 January
- Presidents’ Day/Washington’s Birthday: 15 February
- Memorial Day: 31 May
- Independence Day: 4 July
- Labor Day: 6 September
- Columbus Day: 11 October
- Veterans Day: 11 November
- Thanksgiving: 25 November
- Christmas: 25 December
What else closes on Thanksgiving?
Like most holidays in the US, government offices and banks are closed on Thanksgiving. Transport, like buses, will be running a reduced schedule, so if you are meeting family using public transport, it is worth double-checking times as it is likely they will not be their usual since hours may be limited.
Unlike previous years, some of the biggest stores in the US will once again be shutting up shop on Thursday.
This comes even though many major retailers like Walmart and Target had started their Black Friday sales early -- some stores even well before Thanksgiving.
Read more on Thanksgiving
Stores weren’t always open on Thanksgiving. Target, like several other big box stores, only started opening at midnight in 2010 to take adevantage of the then-growing selling spree of Black Friday. In 2020, the holiday trailed only Cyber Monday and Black Friday in online sales, according to the Adobe Digital Economy Index.
However, in-store sales continue to be dwarfed by the main event but at the same time it was cannibalizing Black Friday shoppers and causing blowback from employees and members of the public. And then the pandemic hit, and it became clear that in-person shopping would need to be limited to slow the spread of the virus.
Thus the Thursday shopping events were canceled by many retailers in 2020. Due to the appreciation that management received from employees to be able to spend the holiday with their families, stores like Target have keep their doors closed on Thanksgiving ever since.