For Walmart, Black Friday is the biggest day of the year. But one of the smaller retailers it recently acquired is taking the day off instead.
Walmart may own ModCloth, but the women’s fashion retailer is showing some independence on Black Friday
Something to prove under new management?
Jason Del Rey has been a business journalist for 15 years and has covered Amazon, Walmart, and the e-commerce industry for the last decade. He was a senior correspondent at Vox.
ModCloth, a women’s fashion retailer that does most of its business online, is shutting down its site on Black Friday and said it is donating clothes with a retail value of $5 million to a nonprofit called Dress for Success instead.
It is also giving its employees the day off and running a social media contest focused on recognizing people who do charitable work in their communities.
With the move, ModCloth joins a small group of retailers that use the day to make a statement or do some good. Outdoor gear retailer REI, for example, is shutting its store on Black Friday for the third year in a row.
The move by ModCloth is especially noteworthy. The company has been around for 15 years but this year marks the first time it is closing for Black Friday, a spokesperson confirmed.
Could it be that ModCloth previously could not afford the financial hit of shutting down on a big shopping day when it was an independent company?
Or is it that ModCloth is looking for a way to prove to longtime customers — many of whom were vocal about their displeasure that a company whose clothes celebrated individuality was acquired by a corporate behemoth — that it truly had maintained its independence.
Frankly, both make sense.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
