RadioShack Reverses Plan To Stay Open All Day On Thanksgiving

RadioShack Reverses Plan To Stay Open All Day On Thanksgiving
Pedestrians pass in front of a RadioShack Corp. store in New York, U.S., on Sunday, March 2, 2014. RadioShack Corp. is scheduled to release earnings figures on March 4. Photographer: Craig Warga/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Pedestrians pass in front of a RadioShack Corp. store in New York, U.S., on Sunday, March 2, 2014. RadioShack Corp. is scheduled to release earnings figures on March 4. Photographer: Craig Warga/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Just two days after it announced it would be open from 8:00 a.m. until midnight on Thanksgiving, RadioShack is changing its plan.

RadioShack said Wednesday that most of its stores will take a break mid-day on Thanksgiving, closing their doors between noon and 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving. A RadioShack representative confirmed to The Huffington Post the store would still be open at 8 a.m. and will stay open until midnight that day, with a five-hour break.

The company did not offer further explanation for the change. Earlier on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that the company revised its plan because workers complained.

On Monday, RadioShack spokeswoman Andrea McCauley told CNBC that RadioShack was just doing what its customers wanted.

"Given the customer demand for store hours on Thanksgiving last year, we made the decision to open on Thanksgiving," she said. "It gives us the opportunity to stay competitive."

Most major retailers, from Walmart to J.C. Penney, now kick off the holiday shopping season on Thanksgiving day, ahead of the traditional "Black Friday" start. The pressure is on retailers to stay open in order to stay competitive. If RadioShack is closed on Thanksgiving, a shopper could easily go to Best Buy -- which will start offering Black Friday deals at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving -- for a pair of headphones.

A Best Buy spokesperson told The Huffington Post that the retailer essentially feels peer pressure to open on the holiday. Two years ago, when the store waited until 12 a.m. on Black Friday to open, the store suffered because many of its competitors opened Thursday evening.

RadioShack's original plan for Thanksgiving was among the more aggressive Thanksgiving plans for retailers. Most Walmart stores will be open all day. Kmart will be open at 6 a.m. and remain open for 42 hours straight. But other major retailers like Target won't open until 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving.

RadioShack has been struggling for years and is trying to turn itself around by redesigning stores and rebranding itself. In March, the company reported a loss of $400 million in 2013 and announced plans to close more than 1,000 stores.

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