Expect fewer stores to be open on Thanksgiving as the holiday shopping season gets underway.

Those looking to get out of the house and start their holiday shopping on Thanksgiving Day, take note: Your choice of stores will be limited.

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Many brand-name retailers will be closed for the holiday.

Right now, at least 60 national merchants will not open on turkey day, including Nordstrom, Barnes & Noble, Neiman Marcus, Petsmart, Marshalls, Home Depot and Lowe’s, according to Bestblackfriday.com, which tracks holiday store closings.

Others are sure to follow. Some of the big kids on the retail block — Sears, Kmart and Target — tell me they are weighing their options.

There’s an important upside to a Thanksgiving retail recess. Time away helps boost employee morale, gives consumers a break before holiday gift-buying madness and yetisn’t a threat to crucial year-end sales, which this season are expected to jump a respectable 4 percent from 2016.

To be clear, shutting down for the holiday is not always an altruistic decision. By closing, stores save money on operating costs while shoppers intent on shopping on Thanksgiving usually can tap into a chain’s online site.

“Just because a retailer closes their doors on Thanksgiving doesn’t mean their website is also closed,” said Ana Serafin Smith, spokeswoman for the Washington-based National Retail Federation, an industry trade group.

It wasn’t so long ago that nearly all businesses, with the exception of places like movie theatres, restaurants and gas stations, went dark on Thanksgiving. It may sound quaint but the holiday was considered a communal and convivial occasion, not a launching pad for Black Friday sales.

In 1988 that began to change after Walmart opened its doors on Thanksgiving and competing big-box chains and other stores followed.

Lately, however, many retailers have reversed course.

Credit outdoor equipment and apparel seller REI for leading the charge — over the past two years the chain’s stores were closed on Thanksgiving and also on Black Friday. REI encouraged workers and customers to use the holiday for participating in an outside activity like hiking, camping or skiing, and paid its estimated 12,000 employees for time off. REI hasn’t determined what it’s doing this year.

While few retailers are going to turn their backs on Black Friday sales, an estimated 70 national chains last year were closed for Thanksgiving.

Even a few malls are getting into the Thanksgiving spirit.

Tennessee-based CBL & Associates Properties is closing its midsized Illinois malls: CherryVale Mall in Rockford, Eastland Mall in Bloomington, Hickory Point Mall in Forsyth and St. Clair Square in Fairview Heights. Stores and shops in those malls with exterior entrances have the option to remain open.

In some cases, there’s not enough customer traffic to justify the cost of opening the stores, especially specialty chains and home improvement centers. Also, staffing the stores is disruptive to managers and rank-and-file employees, who are compelled to tend to business while everyone else is reveling.

Talk about counterproductive. Why begin the holiday season, which accounts for up to 25 percent of annual retail revenues, with a bunch of resentful, disgruntled workers?

In addition, keeping the doors open on Thanksgiving Day is no guarantee of achieving better year-end results, retail experts caution.

Obviously, the biggest change confronting retailers is the relentless demand for digital shopping and the powerful reach of e-commerce behemoth Amazon.

In response to a changing world, bricks-and-mortar chains are retrenching by closing stores permanently, firing workers and, in some cases, reorganizing under the protection of a federal bankruptcy court. They also are investing heavily in online and many will keep their internet storefronts up and running on Thanksgiving. Nordstrom, for instance, will not open its stores on Thanksgiving but its three websites, Nordstrom.com, NordstromRack.com and HauteLook.com, will be open.

Yes, the retail industry’s future is full of uncertainty.

But closing up shop in honor of Thanksgiving is a welcome nod to the past.