Thanksgiving Day shopping frowned upon in 'Bible Belt'

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — The trend of stores opening their doors on Thanksgiving Day may have hit a wall, especially here in the South.

At Clarksville's Governor's Square Mall, which is always ground zero for Christmas shopping in Tennessee's fifth-largest city, two years of opening the mall as a whole on Thanksgiving Day has come to an abrupt end.

Mall Marketing Director Kaitlyn Mobley said it has much to do with family values in the nation's Bible Belt. Governor's Square is owned by Ohio-based Cafaro Co., one of America's largest privately held shopping center developers.

Generally speaking, Cafaro has elected to close most of its mall properties south of the Mason-Dixon line on Thanksgiving Day, including Clarksville's. "The trend in the South is a little different," Mobley said.

"Below the Bible Belt, people don't want to be here on Thanksgiving. Down here being with family on Thanksgiving is more of a traditionalist thing, almost a religion, and the company has chosen to honor that," she said.

Tom Alberty, strolling through the main concourse last week with his family, agrees.

"I don't like shopping on Thanksgiving. It takes away from family time for the employees.

"You have 300 days to shop throughout the year, why do you pick Thanksgiving?" Alberty said.

While the mall as a whole will be closed that day, some stores within the mall's main concourse will be open by 3 or 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Those include Old Navy, Rue 21, Victoria's Secret, Belk, JC Penney, and the Carmike Governor's Square 10 movie theater, which always caters to Thanksgiving movie-goers.

But not apparel store Maurice's.

Maurice's will be closed for a second straight year on Thanksgiving.

"It's just nice to have our company care about us in this way," says Area Manager Karie Carroll.