BATON ROUGE - The Cortana Mall in Baton Rouge will join dozens of other stores across the country who are scheduled to close their doors Thursday for Thanksgiving. 

A spokesperson for the Cortana Mall told WBRZ that doors will open at 6 a.m. on Black Friday. Anchor stores like JC Penny, however, will be able to open their doors at their discretion.

Cortana Mall shoppers will have to brave the crowds at The Mall of Louisiana off Bluebonnet Blvd. According to its website, the Mall of Louisiana will be open Thanksgiving Day from 6p.m. to midnight then will reopen at 6 a.m. Friday morning. 

Last month, CBL and Associates, who owns 89 regional malls including the Acadiana Mall in Lafayette, announced that they will close their doors at almost all of their locations until 6 a.m. Friday. 

Many of the nation's major mall operators and the big retailers that anchor them, such as Toys R Us, J.C. Penney, and Macy's, are sticking with what they want to be a new tradition, kicking off the holiday shopping season on Thanksgiving Day.

The Mall of America, the nation's largest shopping mall, is closing for Thanksgiving this year after being open for the past several years. Some retailers that are closing cite respect for the holiday, but in truth the cost of being open may be more than the return.

"Once you let the genie out of the bottle, it's hard," said Stephen D. Lebovitz, president and CEO of CBL & Associates Properties, a mall operator that is closing 72 of its malls for the day. "More retailers are coming to their senses and realizing it is a family holiday and from a business point of view, it's not making much business sense."

Stores being open on Thanksgiving started in earnest in 2011 and took a punch out of sales on Black Friday, which had usually launched the shopping season. Many places like Macy's, Target and J.C. Penney have been opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving as they try to outdo others to get first dibs on customers who could easily buy online. But the move has been controversial, as many workers have voiced complaints that stores are putting profits over workers' time to be with their families.

For department stores, the competition is fierce. Last year, J.C. Penney opened at 3 p.m. for the first time, three hours earlier than its rivals Kohl's and Macy's. That may have hurt Macy's, which had a weak holiday season and aims to reverse a sales slump. This year, Macy's decided to open an hour earlier at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Penney is sticking to 3 p.m., while Kohl's will be opening again at 6 p.m. Most Sears stores will be open on Thanksgiving for the fourth year in a row, starting at 6 p.m. — the same as a year ago.

Below are times that some stores will be open for the holiday: