TRAVERSE CITY, MI -- If the Regis salon had its choice, the store in the Grand Traverse Mall would not have opened its doors on Thanksgiving.

But the alternative was to pay the mall a fine of around $500, the salon's manager told MLive and The Grand Rapids Press.

"We had to be open all the required hours," said the woman, who declined to give her name.

During those required hours from 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving to 1 a.m. Friday, the salon didn't do much business.

"It was slow," she said.

On Friday after the salon re-opened, business had picked up, she said.

The mall's general manager didn't return a call from MLive and The Grand Rapids Press seeking comment.

Salons in two Grand Rapids area malls said there was no pressure or threats of fines for them to open on the holiday. They had the flexibility to open when they wanted from Thursday evening to Friday morning.

The Regis Salon at the RiverTown Crossings Mall in Grandville opted not to open at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving with more than half the shopping center's retailers, including its six anchor stores. Most of the anchors stayed open through the night.

But the salon and other mall tenants were required to open by 6 a.m. Friday or face fines, said the receptionist at the Regis Salon, who didn't provide her name.

Opening on Thanksgiving was voluntary, confirmed Amanda Gielczyk, RiverTown's marketing manager.

Giving retailers a little flexibility on their hours as Black Friday opening hours have gotten earlier seems to be a philosophy that has evolved over the years.

In 2011, Trade Secret salon, which is no longer listed as a tenant at RiverTown Crossings, opened at midnight on Thanksgiving only because the alternative was hourly fines, the manager told MLive and The Grand Rapids Press at the time.

The manager, who didn't schedule any stylists to work during the midnight opening, was surprised when three people came to the salon for hair styles. She had no choice but to turn them away.

MasterCuts, a salon in Woodland Mall, stayed closed this Thanksgiving, and didn't open earlier on Black Friday with many of the retailers. Instead, the salon stuck to its regular Friday hours, and opened at 10 a.m., the receptionist said.

Terry Leshuk, the Kentwood mall’s marketing manager, said he wasn't aware that Woodland's parent company, PREIT, was fining any tenants that didn't open on Thanksgiving.

The mall's 122 tenants opened in waves, and some closed later Thursday evening while most of the anchors and the mall stayed open through the night.

Barnes & Noble, Pottery Barn and Apple didn't open until 5 a.m. Friday, according to the mall's website.

It's not uncommon for malls to penalize retailers for not opening during business hours, said Mark Ansara, a retail adviser with Colliers International's Grand Rapids office.

But the big-box anchors, which own their own real estate, can create their own hours, he added.

This year, Macy's was the first major retailer to announced it would be launching its in-store Black Friday sales at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving, two hours earlier than in 2013. JCPenney later one-upped its competition, by going with a 5 p.m. start time.

It made sense for the Grand Rapids area malls to push up their start times to 6 p.m. so other tenants could benefit from the extra traffic, Ansara said.

"It behooves malls to allow other retailers to open and take advantage of the overflow in the mall," he said.

All three of the malls have different owners.

Woodland is owned by Philadelphia-based PREIT, short for The Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, one of the first publicly-traded real estate investment trusts.



RiverTown belongs to the Chicago-based General Growth Properties, one of the biggest mall owners in the U.S.

The 530,000-square-foot Grand Traverse Mall is under the ownership of the New York City-based Rouse Properties, a spin off of GGP.

RELATED: General Growth Properties' spin-off company buys Grand Traverse Mall for $66 million

Shandra Martinez covers business for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email her or follow her on Twitter @shandramartinez.