Just a couple of years ago, the trend in retail was to remain open on Thanksgiving Day. Then shoppers “voted” in various surveys and an overwhelming majority said stores should be closed on this quintessentially American holiday.

This year over 70% polled in Deloitte’s pre-Thanksgiving pulse survey said it was better if stores stayed closed – a landslide in today’s cultural climate. The survey was conducted the last week in October among 1,200 American adults who plan to shop during this holiday season.

This is one of the major takeaways in Deloitte’s latest survey about how consumers plan to shop over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, including Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday.

Coming November 27 is Small Business Saturday, the officially-recognized shopping holiday sponsored by American Express, now in its 12th year. Small Business Saturday is the capstone event for American Express’ now year-long Shop Small movement to support independent small businesses all around the globe.

“We committed more than $200 million, including special offers and incentives, to motivate our customers to get out and Shop Small. And this year, we are introducing new initiatives to help drive more business to small businesses,” he continues.

Bracketed by Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday has had an impressive run bringing more customers out to shop over the nation’s biggest holiday shopping weekend. It even gained Congressional and presidential support in 2011.

With a stated goal of driving $100 billion in reported consumer spending to small businesses on Small Business Saturday from 2021 through 2025, this year’s event and the rest of the season is more critical than ever to keep small businesses afloat in 2022.