After announcing that it would be closed on Thanksgiving Day, Mall of America (Bloomington, Minn.) experienced a surge in shoppers on Black Friday: An estimated 250,000 shoppers came to the mall on Black Friday this year, which marked it as the mall’s busiest shopping day in the last decade, reports Star Tribune.
Mall executives say that the decision to stay closed on the holiday paid off in increased traffic: It experienced 25 percent more shoppers this year as compared to 2015, and 23 percent more shoppers as compared with 2014. Additionally, the mall’s traffic from Friday through Sunday was higher than it was last year when the mall was open Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) through Sunday.
"It was the right decision, and we were glad that we made it," said Jill Renslow, the mall's senior vp of marketing and business development.