GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The term “Black Friday” is slowly becoming a misnomer as more retailers begin opening their doors on Thursday.

And it’s not any Thursday, but Thanksgiving: a holiday many people see as a time to be thankful for the people around them and the things they already have.

That’s perhaps why, even as more people spend time away from the dinner table to shop for deals on Thanksgiving Day, some national retailers are promoting their decision to shut their doors. Stores such as TJ Maxx, Gamestop and Cabela’s said their decision was made with their employees in mind.

“For us, closing our stores on Thanksgiving is a principled stand to allow our associates the time with their families, and we’ve received a positive response from our associates and customers as well,” said Jackie Smith, a spokeswoman for Gamestop, a video game retailer.

These stores may be missing out on a slice of the holiday shopping pie. The National Retail Federation reported 44.8 million people shopped on Thanksgiving Day last year, up 27 percent from 2012.

“It’s not a financial decision for our company,” said Nathan Borowski, a spokesman for Cabela’s, an outdoor recreation retailer based in Nebraska.

Grand Forks’ Columbia Mall will open at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving and close at midnight, but stores may choose to open earlier or close later. Mall officials didn’t say whether individual stores could choose to stay closed on Thanksgiving, however.

‘A BAD TASTE’

It started small enough.

In 2011, Brian Rich started a Facebook page titled “Boycott Black Thursday,” a take on “Black Friday,” the annual shopping tradition that begins with early morning sales the day after Thanksgiving. Rich, who works at a credit union in Idaho, started the page in response to Toys R Us becoming one of the first major retailers to push its shopping hours into Thanksgiving Day.

“It was totally taboo at that point, and all the retailers were like, ‘Oh, they’re crazy,'” Rich said. His page ended that holiday with a modest 47 fans.

But as the number of retailers opening early has grown, so has the opposition, Rich said. His page had more than 100,000 “likes” on Thursday morning, due to what Rich said is increased aversion to the idea of hunting for bargains on a holiday and having employees spend time away from their families.

“People are taking the time to think about it now,” Rich said, adding that Thanksgiving is a somewhat unique American holiday in that it doesn’t involve giving material gifts. “When people do take a moment to think about Black Thursday and the whole idea of consumerism versus Thanksgiving, it leaves a pretty bad taste in their mouth.”

EARLY START

While Rich’s Facebook page criticizes stores such as Walmart, Best Buy and Kmart for opening during the holiday, it also promotes ones that are staying closed. That included a post last week giving “three cheers” for Cabela’s.

“Once we put it on our social media accounts, we got a lot of support from our customer base with our decision to respect the holiday and respect our employees and giving them the holiday off,” Borowski said.

However, some stores have a different take.

“Over the past two years, millions of people have made it clear that they wanted to shop on Thanksgiving evening,” said Best Buy spokeswoman Megan Boyd. “Opening on Thanksgiving allows our shoppers to get great deals on the brands they want, when they want, and for us to be competitive.”

Best Buy in Grand Forks will open at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving and close at 1 a.m. They will reopen at 8 a.m. Friday and close at 10 p.m. That’s a change from last year, when it remained open through Friday morning. Boyd said that shift was partly a logistical one — there are fewer shoppers in the early morning hours — but it also gives employees a chance to rest.

Many stores may be driven by competition to get a head start on what the National Retail Federation considers the biggest shopping weekend of the year. Sixty-four percent of holiday shoppers went out on Thanksgiving Day 2013 or visited stores by 10 a.m. on Black Friday, the organization reported.

“Over the past two years, millions of people have made it clear that they wanted to shop on Thanksgiving evening,” Boyd said. “Opening on Thanksgiving allows our shoppers to get great deals on the brands they want, when they want, and for us to be competitive.”