Is Walmart Open On Thanksgiving 2025?

The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and Thanksgiving will be here before you know it. As such, now is an excellent time to develop your holiday shopping strategy. Walmart is a great place to do Thanksgiving shopping, as the chain features groceries, cookware, household goods, and more to ensure you can find everything in the same place. But what if you leave an essential item off your holiday shopping list? Can you head to Walmart on Thanksgiving to find what you need? Maybe not.

Walmart doesn't share its holiday hours online but Mashed reached out to the store for more insight. According to the customer service representative we spoke with, all Walmart locations around the U.S. will be closed on Thanksgiving. The store will be open the day after Thanksgiving, aka Black Friday, though it's not totally clear when the discount grocery chain will open its doors. In years' past, Walmart opened as early as 5 a.m. in anticipation of deal-hungry shoppers. While it's good the store allows workers to spend Thanksgiving with their families, Walmart generally has mixed reviews from its employees, who've highlighted issues like insufficient wages and staffing problems while working at the chain.

Walmart's decision to close its stores on Thanksgiving is a relatively recent development. In 2021, Walmart announced it would no longer be open on Thanksgiving as a means of rewarding its staff for their commitment to the chain throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to that, the store had been open during the holiday for many years, with the last reported Thanksgiving closure taking place during the '80s. Walmart remained surprisingly busy throughout the pandemic thanks to its e-commerce sales, which meant that staff was regularly put to the test as customers placed online orders for grocery delivery. 

In the event you find yourself in need of last-minute groceries on the holiday, the majority of Whole Foods stores are open on Thanksgiving, but with modified hours. Similarly, Kroger is open but also with adjusted hours. In both cases, customers are encouraged to contact their local stores to determine the exact hours of operation. You can also check out our guide to prepping for Thanksgiving, which recommends that you begin shopping for the holiday as early as three weeks prior.