Which Grocery Stores Are Open On Thanksgiving 2024 (And Which Are Closed)?

Thanksgiving may be a holiday for most workers in the U.S., but not everybody gets to take time off. Among those who still have to show up on the job are grocery store workers. This may or may not be a good thing for the workers in question (it probably depends on whether they get overtime pay), but it's a boon for anyone who's forgotten to make cranberry sauce or has a last-moment revelation that the only way to salvage that green bean casserole is by burying it in extra fried onions. It's also convenient for those who don't celebrate the holiday since it's always nice to run errands at a time when everyone else is otherwise occupied.

Still, not every grocery store is necessarily going to be open on the Thanksgiving holiday, nor will they adhere to regular hours. While we can't account for every store out there, particularly independent ones, the following is a list of how some major chains plan to handle Thanksgiving this year.

Aldi may be  America's fastest-growing grocery chain, but the company is German by birth.German work culture prioritizes free time to such an extent that all full-time employees are entitled by law to 20 days leave. It should come as no surprise, then, that Aldi closes all of its stores on Thanksgiving.

Acme Markets, the go-to grocery for Wile E. Coyote, is a regional chain with 150+ locations throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and extending to a Connecticut-shaped tendril in New England. While the website does not post any information regarding holiday hours specific to this year, a 2023 Facebook post indicates that most Acme Market locations are open on Thanksgiving Day from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. As we can't confirm that this holds for every location, it's best to check with the one in your area before planning a Thanksgiving shopping spree.

You don't need to sit down to roast turkey on Thanksgiving — there's no law mandating that you do so — but the one thing you won't be dining on in its stead is a $1.50 hot dog from the Costco food court. Not unless you buy one a day ahead of time and stick it in the fridge, that is, since all U.S. Costco warehouses will be closed for business on Thanksgiving.

H-E-B, a.k.a. the best little grocery chain in Texas, is kind enough not to make us play guessing games with its store hours. It, too, adopts an early closing for Thanksgiving Day: All stores open at 6 a.m. but close at noon. Curbside pickup is only available until 11 a.m., however, while the last home deliveries are scheduled for 10 a.m. You'll also need to fill your prescriptions ahead of time since no H-E-B pharmacies are open on the holiday.

Harris Teeter, one of the numerous Kroger affiliates, doesn't list its holiday hours on the website. According to r/HarrisTeeter, however, these stores are generally open on Thanksgiving but with reduced hours. While many Harris Teeters are typically open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., on Thanksgiving they may close at 2 p.m. This lets the chain have the best of both worlds — capitalizing on last-minute shoppers while allowing employees to make it home in time for dinner.

Hy-Vee, a grocery chain that spans eight Midwestern states from Missouri to North Dakota, lists holiday hours for each individual store. As there are over 240 of these, it took a lot of scrolling, but we checked them all so you don't have to. It looks like each and every single one is closed on Thanksgiving, so you'd best make that green bean hotdish ahead of time, don'tcha know.

Kroger may be the grocery chain that launched a thousand affiliates (well, at least more than a dozen), but over 1200 of these stores actually carry the Kroger name right on the storefront. These Kroger-branded stores haven't posted an official policy regarding Thanksgiving hours, but it seems that most stay open with reduced hours, and Redditors who work there report locations closing at anywhere from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Meijer is another grocery chain that doesn't announce its holiday hours on the website, but a 2019 statement by a company executive explains that the stores are committed to remaining open on Thanksgiving to serve forgetful shoppers with last-minute grocery needs. Stores were open until 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day of 2023, so we'd expect them to be open on the 2024 holiday, as well, although hours may vary by location. Redditors employed by the chain note that it often waits until late October or early November to announce its holiday hours, so keep checking.

Safeway doesn't seem to have a one-size-fits-all policy for holiday closures. One employee we spoke with at a Rockville, Maryland Safeway told us that the hours had not been announced as of mid-October, so we turned to Reddit instead. While there didn't seem to be anything specific to Thanksgiving 2024, most workers indicated that their stores usually stayed open for the holiday with possible adjustments to the opening hours. One person posting on r/Safeway in 2022 said that their 24-hour store did close for a few hours on Thanksgiving (although they didn't say which ones).

Planning a Thanksgiving feast for the whole neighborhood? You may need to shop at Sam's Club, where you can buy just about everything in bulk. Not at the last minute, though, since all Sam's warehouses will be closed on Thanksgiving Day. This allows its employees to rest up before any Black Friday craziness kicks off.

While you wouldn't expect an actual farmer's market to be open on a holiday, particularly one during a cold time of year, Sprouts Farmers Market is just a grocery chain with a cutesy name and a focus on the same bougie-healthy clientele as Whole Foods. Since it would be a tragedy to run short on organic tofurkey on the big day, Sprouts will be open on Thanksgiving from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

While Target isn't a full-scale grocery per se, it does offer a fairly wide range of grocery items in addition to clothing, household goods, and all the other typical department store stuff. You won't be able to make a Target run on Thanksgiving, though. While the store stayed open in pre-pandemic years, it has since adopted a policy of remaining closed on the holiday.

Trader Joe's will be closed on Thanksgiving this year, as has been the case since the late '80s. For the first 20-some years of the chain's existence, though, the stores did stay open on the holiday for one main reason: They sold a tremendous amount of wine (as opposed to Christmas, when harder stuff was a hot commodity). Employees did get overtime pay, though, and the corporate execs would actually work in-store right along the rank-and-file. While TJ's employees now get a day off for Thanksgiving, that's one less opportunity for Hawaiian shirts to hobnob with suits.

If you hate making turkey gravy, you may be pleasantly surprised to find out that the best store-bought kin comes from Walmart. Great Value gravy may be a bargain, but you'd best stock up on it ahead of time since Walmart will not be open on Thanksgiving Day. While the big box store used to kick off Black Friday a day early, it put an end to the madness in 2020 and has remained closed on Thanksgiving ever since.

If you find yourself in dire need of artisanal cranberry bread or eco-friendly paper napkins right before your Thanksgiving guests arrive, there's a chance that Whole Foods may still be open. According to company policy, many (although not all) stores will be doing business on the holiday with reduced hours that vary by location. According to r/wholefoods, it seems that 1 p.m. may be a typical closing hour for many.