Just a few years ago, almost all retailers closed on Thanksgiving to give their employees and shoppers a breather before the big shopping push on Black Friday. Things are sure different today.

As reported by Andria Cheng for MarketWatch:

“About 33 million Americans, or more than 1 in 10,  plan to go shopping on Thanksgiving Day to take advantage of special sales offers from retailers such as Wal-Mart and Macy’s, according to a retail trade group survey. But that won’t be enough to counter an expected decline in traffic over the Black Friday weekend.

“Overall, 140 million people are expected to shop in stores and online over the Thanksgiving and Black Friday holiday weekend, a 4.7% decrease from 147 million last year, according to a National Retail Federation survey of 6,200 shoppers conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.”

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Photo by Bloomberg