We are now roughly two weeks out from Easter, which is on April 20. It’s super late this year, so the fact that it’s almost here is making me wonder how a calendar year that has felt so long is going by so quickly. Like, what even is time, man? Wasn’t it just January 19? Can we go back to that day and stay in it forever?
Anyway, okay, back to Easter! Since it’s considered a major holiday, a lot of businesses will either close early or shut down for the day completely. Last week, several big retailers announced their Easter Sunday schedules. The stores that will remain open included Dollar Tree, Walmart, and Home Depot. Those that will be closed include Target, Costco, Sam’s Club (which is also owned by Walmart’s parent company), and Publix.
Easter, a Christian holiday marking the end of Lent, will be celebrated this year on Sunday, April 20. Shoppers in need of last-minute groceries and gifts will be able to turn to a few popular chains.
Dollar Tree, for example, is not on the long list of stores closing on Easter, the discount chain confirmed to The U.S. Sun. Shoppers can expect Dollar Tree to keep its roughly 16,800 stores throughout the US and Canada open on the springtime holiday. Dollar Tree remains open for most federal and bank holidays but generally shuts down all of its locations on Christmas.
Not all major retailers have shared their 2025 holiday schedules yet, but consumers can reasonably predict if a store will be open or closed on Easter Sunday based on previous years For example, Walmart, Trader Joe’s, and Kroger all kept their stores open as normal on Easter last year. A handful of other chains, including CVS, Dollar General, and Walgreens are also likely to remain open for the upcoming holiday.
Although Dollar Tree and several other stores will be open on Easter, many national retail chains will shut their doors for 24 hours to commemorate the holiday and permit employees time at home with loved ones. For example, Target confirmed to The U.S. Sun that all of its nearly 2,000 locations would participate in the widespread Easter closures.
“Guests can expect regular store hours on April 19 and can check Target.com or the Target app for local store information,” a Target spokesperson stated via email.
Aldi will also close its roughly 2,500 locations nationwide on April 20 Costco and Sam’s Club have also confirmed that they will temporarily shutter their warehouse clubs to permit staff time to celebrate the holiday. Other chains likely participating in the upcoming retail blackout include H-E-B, Best Buy, Marshalls, and more.
I’m infamous among my friends and family for being a last-minute planner, so I find that knowing what’s open and closed ahead of time is helpful. For example, Mr. Rosie and I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time in November 2013. On the morning of, I suddenly remembered that his mom liked a specific type and brand of gravy. I made Mr. Rosie drive around to three different stores before we found one that was open. It was not one of my better days. So, here’s something that Mr. R would have appreciated having all those years ago: a list of what’s opened and closed on Easter.
Open for Easter:
CVS
Dollar General
Whole Foods
Home Depot
Kroger
Trader Joe’s
Walgreens
Walmart
Dollar TreeClosed for Easter:
Target
Costco
Aldi
Sam’s Club
Publix
JCPenney
Kohl’s
Macy’s
H-E-B
Michaels
Lowe’s
Best Buy
Marshalls
Home Depot being open makes me laugh because who is going in to buy supplies for a home project on Easter? Santa Claus? In all seriousness, I know the subject of stores being open and closed on holidays can be controversial, so I just want to say how appreciative I am of the employees who work on those days, even the ones who do so because they do not celebrate the holiday. They’re still showing up on a day when much of the world has tapped out. The moral here is to not be like me. Make those employees’ lives easier on Easter by buying everything you need ahead of time. Oh, and I have never hosted a Thanksgiving since.
I grew up in an era when there was no Sunday trading and half day trading on Saturday. No one ever ran out of food or other supplies. I think all shops should shut on holidays and let everyone have a break.
US stores being open for (almost) every single day will never not be fascinating to me.
Here in Germany, most stores are closed on Good Friday, Easter Sunday AND Easter Monday.
I grew up in an era when store hours were limited on Sunday and many small businesses were closed on Sunday and one other day a week. Loads of businesses around here made it a point to close on Easter for years to pander to the evangelicals. On one level I can respect a business for giving their employees a holiday and time with their familes. Easter should actually be a higher Christian holiday than Christmas. On another levels the evangelicals aren’t really Christians and worship a false tangerine idol instead of the actual teachings of Christ, so I don’t see the point.
The cognitive dissonance to claim another god for false than the one you are worshipping….
If it wasn’t so sad it would be hilarious.
When capitalism is the god. Nobody needs to shop on a sunday! But then again, no working rights or a proper healthcare and the highest prices for medicine in the world.
i mean, a lot of Jewish people need to shop on a Sunday.
Right? Not everyone is Christian; some people even prefer to work on holidays because it they’d be getting overtime. Back in my youth I worked in a call center for a travel company and there was never any shortage of volunteers to work on Good Friday or Christmas Eve…the work day was generally quieter, and they’d get time and a half.
LOL, as I was writing my comment below, Becks as usual meanwhile being the voice of reason ❤️
@ Becks 1 I’m Jewish and my wife is Muslim. Next week Saturday night is the start of Passover for me. I just checked the Christian calendar. I see Passover and Easter Friday & Easter Sunday overlap (darn I love hot cross bun french toast with lashings of butter and maple syrup) so that’s a downer
Why do Jewish people need to shop on a Sunday? I mean, observant Jews don’t need to avoid shopping on Sundays for religious reasons, but otherwise, being Jewish and needing to shop on a Sunday, or any other specific day of the week, makes no sense.
@pinkorchid Not one single Jewish person owes you an explanation for shopping on Sunday.
In the US, there are no large scale closures for religious observances that are not Christian. Why does anyone need to shop on Yom Kippur? Stores don’t have Ramadan hours because who needs to shop during that time?
And the growing number of atheists certainly don’t have or ask for holiday closures tied to their beliefs. Why do they need to on a Tuesday or a a Wednesday.
Why don’t you tell me what days you have decided people should shop?
The lack of tolerance, basic human decency and not being an absolute jerk never ceases to amaze me.
@Pinkorchid because if you are Jewish and observe the Sabbath and need to run errands, Sunday is going to be your best bet, since yes, a lot of Jewish people who observe the Sabbath also work during the week.
Sure, they could shop on Mondays or tuesdays or whenever, but so could everyone. So why are stores even open on weekends??
for me, its the idea of “no one needs to shop on a sunday” because that implies that people can shop on saturday instead. But some people can’t for religious reasons. Maybe some people can’t because of work schedules, etc. There are lots of reasons for people to shop on Sundays.
Easter may be different, obviously, as a holiday, but my comment was in response to the idea that “no one needs to shop on a Sunday.”
Also, in response to the idea of not needing to shop on Sundays – a lot of people are referencing stores being closed on Sundays decades ago, when both parents might not have worked full time. Stores were closed on Sundays when my mom was growing up but my grandmother didn’t work, so that doesn’t really work in today’s economy as a practical matter.
For a lot of people, weekends are the only time they can shop or run other errands. Also: Not everyone is religious, and not every religious person is Christian. For a lot of us, Sunday is just a day in the week.
In my case, Sunday is the day where I have to get pretty much all of my errand-running done as Saturday is spent mentally (sometimes physically) recovering from the work week.
Politicians are exhausting.
@delphi: I was just going to say the same thing. I work M-F & Saturday, I just want to relax! I may clean my apartment, I may not. Sundays are the running errands day. The whole ‘closed on Sunday’ thing is a thing of the past & it belongs there.
@Alla, what about doctors, nurses who are on night shifts? Or truckers or…..etc, etc etc.
Lots of people have needs on Sundays, same as any other day.
yep, yep, yep. Throw in police, fire department, National Park Rangers, lifeguards at the beach–lots of Sunday workers out there.
Big gratitude to services that have to be available all the time, like medical. Other than pharmacies, why do stores need to be open so much?
mostly because not everybody works retail hours. some of us work nights, weekends and holidays. some households have only one car. some people have to make childcare arrangements, some people have partners who work different hours.
Sometimes family and work life is a big jigsaw puzzle. sometimes you just run out of diapers at the exact wrong moment. not everybody is quite so lucky
Stores are open so much because it’s profitable. Not everyone lives by your schedule.
Who said I had a schedule? And thinking that retail workers can get some holidays unlike emergency type workers is that bad an idea to you?
And let’s not forget those retail workers! My mom always worked retail & her days off were sometimes during the standard work week & sometimes not, it just depended on her schedule, which changed from week to week. If stores were only open M-F, when was she supposed to get her shopping done?
In my circle, generally speaking, Easter is treated very differently from Christmas or even Thanksgiving. Most of my friends might get together for brunch or church with their families, but its rarely an all day affair. I know a lot of people who go out to eat and that’s about it. (that’s probably what we’re doing this year, just go to brunch the four of us since my parents and brother are on a cruise.) So a lot of stores may be looking at it from that perspective and assuming people will be shopping or running errands etc.
I do remember working retail ages ago and I just assumed we would be closed on easter. We were not, LOL. I got put on the schedule for it as a manager and honestly just didnt even think to check bc it didn’t occur to me that we would be open. Oops. (I think they close now for it, but thats probably based on sales for that day.)*
Also, I’m not sure if this has changed, but for a lot of stores, your hours are dictated by your landlord. So if you’re in a mall – strip mall or traditional enclosed mall – you may be required to open on Easter Sunday and if you don’t, you have to pay a fine. (this was the case back in my retail days but like I said may have changed.) so that could explain why a chain like Trader Joes that is usually in a strip mall of sorts is open, but stores that are typically stand alone are not.
*also, for a lot of stores, this is what it comes down to. They are closing because their sales over the years have shown they don’t have great sales that day and it costs more to stay open than to close. So if people don’t shop, more stores will close for the holiday.
On the one hand it makes sense to be closed for a number of reasons and yes I agree the religious holiday is one of them.
On the other hand growing up as a Jewish person where my holidays were rarely acknowledged – I’m less upset about this phenomenon of being open on Easter than I might otherwise be.
I grew up in Montreal. West Hill High School had a predominantly Jewish student body, but was a ‘Christian’ school. School was closed for every Christian holiday, so all students were off; the the Jewish kids ALSO got all their holidays off. They were the envy of the rest of us!!
My husband would definitely go to home depot on easter. He also likes to go when the football team from our city is playing an important game. We once went vacuum cleaner shopping during the super bowl and the store was empty.
RE: hubby at Home Depot on Easter: Yep, yep, I can totally relate. We’re at Home Depot/Lowe’s during any weekend that the weather is good enough to be outside, regardless of calendar holidays. Those garden centers don’t run themselves–they always need my attention. And I just like to roam around looking for dogs shopping with their humans. It’s fun.
Yeah, stores are quieter those days. Also? Things break everyday. My brother and I spent Christmas Eve a few years ago fixing something at my mom’s house, and we needed supplies.
Nevermind the fact that not everyone celebrates culturally Christian holidays.
Doesn’t Costco have big hours signs that state, as a permanent feature, that they are closed on Easter and Christmas (and probably Thanksgiving)? The one I go to here in Canada does.
“Home Depot being open makes me laugh because who is going in to buy supplies for a home project on Easter?”
How about the many of us for whom Easter is just another day, and not part of any tradition we’re involved with.
Yep, this!! Could not possibly care any less about Easter and will be going about business as usual that day. Honestly I think it’s weird that the stores are closing but I suspect they’ve done some internal calculus that sales will be down anyway and they’ll get good PR for being so “family-oriented.”
I just wanted to get my Santa Claus joke in there! I know it’s just another day for many people. 🙂
I resent that Christians get to mandate store openings. there are tons of other religions in America as well as atheists and agnostics. how about closing stores because rampant capitalism sucks
I’m a weirdo who likes working on holidays lol.
It probably started with my first job in high school, at a drug store. The main part of the store itself closed on Thanksgiving, but the pharmacy was open for limited hours (I manned the pharmacy cash register). I think our hours were 10 – 3. In any case, I may have missed dinner, but I got to take part in my favorite part of the day, which was having coffee and watching the Macy’s parade with my family. I missed our turkey lunch, BUT I was paid time and half, and my mom showed up around 1 with big plates of food for me and the pharmacist. It was fun.
Now that I have kids, I don’t work on holidays. And I’ll say, while we have our own family traditions, we don’t hold hard and firm to celebrating on a specific date. Sometimes we travel on the specific holiday and celebrate a day or so later. Sometimes we volunteer, which has always been a great experience. Some of our most memorable holidays have been those when we’re doing non-traditional things!
😊
For the ones that are closing are they giving their employees a holiday or is it an unpaid day off?
Unpaid day off.
Unpaid day off. Easter is not a federal holiday nor is it a state one in any of the 50 states; therefore, it’s not paid.
You’d have to check each store’s policy about how they’re treating employees on days they are closed. Your [my] assumptions about whether it’s treated as a paid holiday could be totally wrong. Retail workers may belong to a union that has negotiated pay for certain holidays, even days a store is open. Easter always falls on Sunday, when many office workers are already off, so it’s never been considered for inclusion in USA federally mandated holidays. OTOH there federally mandated holidays that are ignored by many businesses, e.g. Martin Luther King Jr bday, Juneteenth, Columbus Day, Veterans Day. I’ve worked mostly office environments where I got paid vacation days, but one job I held for 9 years required vacation time to be unpaid unless I took it with paid holidays and paid PTO (personal time off).
I often travel over the weekend and am happy many things are open on Sunday. Having to plan around Sunday closures or limited Sunday service can be annoying with limited vacation time. It’s also one of my main shopping days.
Having any pharmacy open on a Sunday is very helpful after you have just left the ER and have a pain medication prescription to fill. We learned that the hard way after we moved to a rural area where practically everything is closed on Sundays or only open in the morning, including the local Walgreens and CVS!
I’ve stopped going to Target since they dropped its DEI initiatives.
FYI, I’ve found an app called Goods Unite Us helpful in identifying which companies are giving to which parties. I’m taking care with where I spend money these days.
AFAIK Costco is still sticking with its DEI programs. Which has caused me to shop there more. The fact that they’re giving workers a day off is another good thing in my book, and I don’t find it surprising that Easter is the day because the majority of their employees are probably Christian.