Dive Brief:

• Kevin Anderson, president and CEO of the Mac Stores, an independent chain of stores in Washington that sells Apple products, was forced to be open at Olympia’s Capital Mall on Thanksgiving last year.

• This year Anderson talked with mall management and the mall’s corporate public relations agency, going up the chain of command and letting the powers that be know that he didn’t want to be open that day.

• The mall, which is owned by Connecticut-based Starwood Capital Group, had planned undisclosed fines for retailers that wouldn’t be open Thanksgiving. The group reversed its policy Wednesday. 

Dive Insight:

Being open on Thanksgiving is increasingly being seen as a cynical move, but malls fining retailers for being closed is especially bothersome, not just to consumers but also to the owners of those businesses. Retailers face fines up to $1,000 an hour from some malls for their decision not to be open on Thanksgiving, an idea so unbelievable to many that it has a page on Snopes confirming it.

Anderson told the Olympian newspaper that he understood that big-box stores feel the need to compete with e-commerce during the Black Friday shopping weekend, but finds the forced decision on the part of malls to be “insanity” and says that retailers have to compete on more than store hours.

“You have to have a value add that makes people want to come into your store,” Anderson said.

He also said that he won’t ever again sign a lease that doesn’t allow him to close on a major holiday.