logo
What's open and closed this Independence Day—from Costco to CVS

What's open and closed this Independence Day—from Costco to CVS

Economic Times9 hours ago
As Americans prepare for July 4th celebrations in 2025, it's crucial to know store and service availability. Costco will be closed nationwide, including its gas stations, while CVS will remain open with modified hours. Most major retailers and pharmacies like Walmart and Walgreens will operate with reduced hours, and restaurants will generally be open, though some may have limited hours.
Tired of too many ads?
Remove Ads
Costco: doors closed nationwide
CVS: open for essentials—with modified hours
Other major retailers and pharmacies
Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Macy's, and JCPenney: All open, though many will have modified or reduced hours. Check your local store for specifics.
Sam's Club and Trader Joe's: Open but closing early, typically by 5 or 6 p.m..
Aldi: Open, but most stores will close by 4 p.m..
Walgreens: Open, but pharmacy hours may vary—call ahead to confirm.
IKEA, Kohl's, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Home Goods: Open with reduced hours; most close by 7 or 8 p.m..
Whole Foods, Kroger: Open, but hours may be adjusted; check online for your location.
Restaurants and gas stations
What's closed
Costco: All locations closed.
Most government offices, courts, and DMVs: Closed for the federal holiday.
U.S. Postal Service: No regular mail delivery.
Banks: Most closed, with ATMs available for withdrawals and deposits.
Pro tips for July 4th shopping
Plan ahead: If you need bulk items or cheap gas, visit Costco by July 3.
Check local hours: Even open stores may have reduced hours—verify online or by phone.
Pharmacy needs: CVS and Walgreens are open, but pharmacy counters may close early or be closed entirely.
As Americans gear up for barbecues, fireworks, and family gatherings this July 4th, it's important to know which stores and services will be open—and which will be taking the day off. Here's a detailed look at what you can expect for Independence Day 2025 , based on the latest verified information.Costco, famous for its bulk bargains and holiday crowds, will close all 624 U.S. locations on July 4th. This closure is part of a longstanding company tradition, giving all 189,000 warehouse employees a paid day off. The shutdown also extends to Costco's popular gas stations, which means over 2,000 fuel bays will be closed—a notable impact as Americans hit the road for the holiday. If you need to stock up on party supplies or fill your tank, plan to do so by July 3.Good news for last-minute shoppers: CVS stores will be open on Independence Day, making it easy to grab snacks, sunscreen, or medications. However, most locations will operate on a holiday schedule, typically opening around 9 or 10 a.m. and closing between 6 and 8 p.m. Some stores—especially those inside malls or in major cities—may have different hours, so it's wise to check ahead. CVS MinuteClinics may have reduced hours or be closed entirely.Most national restaurant chains—including Chick-fil-A, Starbucks , Applebee's, and McDonald's—will be open, though some may operate on reduced hours. Most gas stations will remain open, except for Costco's, which will be closed along with the warehouses.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Oil prices steady on solid job market, tariff uncertainty
Oil prices steady on solid job market, tariff uncertainty

Time of India

time31 minutes ago

  • Time of India

Oil prices steady on solid job market, tariff uncertainty

Oil prices were little changed on Friday as a solid job market bolstered the case for the US Federal Reserve keeping interest rates on hold, with investors also awaiting clarity on President Donald Trump's plans for tariffs on various countries. Brent crude futures rose 1 cent, or 0.01 per cent, to $68.81 a barrel by 0036 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude firmed 3 cents, or 0.04 per cent, to $67.03. Trade was thinned by the US Independence Day holiday. The US labour market receded as a risk when new data on Thursday showed that American firms added a more-than-expected 147,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 4.1 per cent - signs the economy remained resilient despite the turbulence and uncertainty over how big tariffs will be. President Trump said Washington will start sending letters to countries on Friday specifying what tariff rates they will face on goods sent to the United States, a clear shift from earlier pledges to strike scores of individual deals. Trump told reporters before departing for Iowa on Thursday the letters would be sent to 10 countries at a time, laying out tariff rates of 20 per cent to 30 per cent. Trump's 90-day pause on higher US tariffs ends on July 9, and several large trading partners have yet to clinch trade deals, including the European Union and Japan. Keeping prices in check, however, OPEC+, the world's largest group of oil producers, is set to announce an increase of 411,000 barrels per day in production for August as it looks to regain market share, four delegates from the group told Reuters. The US also imposed sanctions on Thursday against a network that smuggles Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi oil and on a Hezbollah-controlled financial institution, the Treasury Department said. Barclays on Thursday said it raised its Brent oil price forecast by $6 to $72 per barrel for 2025 and by $10 to $70 a barrel for 2026 on an improved outlook for demand.

The risky world of private assets opens up to retail investors
The risky world of private assets opens up to retail investors

Mint

time44 minutes ago

  • Mint

The risky world of private assets opens up to retail investors

This was supposed to be the year when initial public offerings (IPOs) came roaring back. Late in 2024 stockmarkets were hitting all-time highs and a cluster of privately owned superstars, with valuations in the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, were preparing to go public. But now the market is frozen. As the world's trading system disintegrates before bosses' eyes, deals of all sorts, whether IPOs or mergers, have ground to a halt. The pause is robbing private-market investors—typically deep-pocketed institutions, or uber-rich individuals—of a big payout. It is also robbing smaller investors of a chance to invest in some of the world's most successful companies, such as Stripe, a payments firm, and Elon Musk's SpaceX. That is making an existing problem worse. Measured against the value of all stocks, the monthly value of equity issued on stockmarkets globally has crumbled in recent years (see chart). That has made private markets the most exciting corner of the investing universe, with trillions of dollars flowing into private equity (PE), venture capital and private debt. Private assets under management, which also include infrastructure and property funds, have surged to $24trn, from $10trn a decade ago. Now private-markets firms are dreaming of getting even bigger—by luring in the investing masses. Marc Rowan, who runs Apollo, a private-credit giant, says the savings of ordinary Americans are his company's biggest opportunity. Larry Fink, the boss of BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, focused his latest missive to shareholders on the subject. New products aimed at a broader cohort of investors are multiplying. This 'democratisation" could benefit millions of investors. But, because private assets are less liquid, more opaque and much less regulated than their listed peers, it also creates new risks. There are good reasons why private assets have long been the preserve of a select few. At its inception, the typical private-equity fund secures commitments from a small club of pension schemes, endowments and other institutions to provide a sum of capital, usually in the tens of millions of dollars. The money is then called on in instalments whenever the fund's manager finds a company to buy. At the end of the fund's life, which can extend to a decade or more, the manager sells or floats the company before returning money to investors. Such conditions are a poor fit for the mass market. Smaller investors are less likely to tolerate the unpredictability of cashflows coming out and back. They are also ill-equipped to handle the mountains of paperwork managers would send their way. Those wanting their money back before the end of the fund's life—in the event of a stockmarket correction, for instance—cannot easily sell their stakes. Enforcing capital calls on legions of individuals would also be impractical. But pioneering products have arrived. In 2017 Blackstone's Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT) was launched to invest in property, which is typically unlisted. The fund has a minimum buy-in of $2,500, a 'perpetual" lifespan and monthly windows during which investors can sell out. BREIT limits the total amount of shares it will repurchase from investors to 5% of its net asset value (NAV) in any quarter. It has boomed in size, to a NAV of $54bn. The Blackstone Private Credit Fund (BCRED), launched in 2021, has done the same for private debt. It is the largest of a growing array of vehicles, dubbed business development companies (BDCs), offering retail investors exposure to private investments. On April 29th Capital Group, an investment firm, and KKR, a private-markets giant, jointly launched two funds blending public and private assets. The vehicles will have a minimum investment of $1,000 and annual fees below 0.9%, much lower than most private funds. Such products 'only scratch the surface of what we can offer", say the sponsors. Assets held by BDCs have more than tripled over the past five years, to $438bn at the end of December. Barbarians at the garden gate Whether such products fly or flop depends on their ability to solve three problems. First is the murky nature of the assets themselves. Public data on private markets are scarce. Whatever are available are hard to interpret. Firms are often accused of massaging the valuations of their holdings to flatter returns. The measures they use are hard to compare with public-market benchmarks. Sporadic reporting allows them to smooth out bad periods. There has been some progress. Last year MSCI, an index provider, unveiled private-market benchmarks that crunch the cashflow data for 14,000 funds since their inception. The new benchmarks also track funds' performance using figures gathered from investors. These should allow funds to be more rigorously compared with other offerings. Another barrier to democratisation is law and regulation. Private-markets firms eye America's vast retirement system. Huge defined-benefit pension schemes, such as the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), have invested heavily in private markets for decades. But individually managed retirement accounts, and defined-contribution 401(k) schemes run by employers, which together hold $26trn in assets, have almost no exposure to private markets. A law from 1974, which spells out pension-plan providers' fiduciary duties, makes it possible they could be sued if they invest in private assets because of their lower liquidity and the high fees charged by fund managers. Here too, change may come soon. Daniel Aronowitz, Mr Trump's nominee to run the Employee Benefits Security Administration at the Department of Labour, has complained about frivolous lawsuits against corporate-pension providers. In 2023 Mr Aronowitz called some criticisms of pe in pension portfolios 'naive and uninformed," noting that exposure could offer both diversification and returns. With narrow Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, private-fund managers are hopeful that they will finally get their foot in the door. The most fundamental difficulty is that private assets are largely illiquid. Whereas stocks and bonds are traded all day long, stakes in private funds change hands only very rarely. Would-be buyers are scarce; working out a price is hard. Transactions, when they do happen, are not public so history can hardly serve as a guide. All this means retail investors cannot simply pile in and out of private assets at will, as they might with other parts of their portfolios. This is a problem new products are finding hard to solve. In November 2022, amid market ructions, many investors in BREIT tried to withdraw their money. The trust could return only 43% of the capital it was asked for; more than a year later it was still limiting withdrawals. Private-equity products could face even bigger liquidity problems, notes Jerry Pascucci of UBS, a bank. Whereas credit and property generate steady streams of cash, equity funds must keep a hefty cash balance or draw on loans, both of which reduce returns, if they are to permit regular withdrawals. To offer punters more liquidity, a few firms have started to offer exchange-traded funds (ETFs) containing private assets. The first was launched jointly in February by Apollo and State Street Global Advisers, a giant ETF provider, with the ticker PRIV. To ensure the minute-by-minute liquidity an ETF requires, however, the fund's private holdings will normally be limited to 35% of its total assets. Its largest holdings currently are mortgage-backed securities and Treasury bonds, which are very liquid. The idea of a liquid vehicle for private assets comes with its own problems. When investors want to transact shares in an ETF, the fund manager must buy or sell shares in the underlying assets to match the changing exposure. Were investors to want to sell their stakes in large volumes, the ETF managers may struggle to find buyers for the illiquid equity and debt inside them. That could cause the funds to seize up. The Securities and Exchange Commission has expressed concerns that priv may not be sufficiently liquid and could struggle to comply with valuation rules. Its warnings appear to have deterred rival firms from launching copycat products. For a long time the democratisation of private markets, though much talked about, remained elusive. Now at last the winds of financial innovation and regulatory change are blowing in the right direction. But as they entice more retail savers, private-fund managers will come under greater scrutiny. Working around the illiquidity of the asset class is hard, and it may even be dangerous to try. In the event that new products disappoint or trap people's savings, a backlash could ensue. The potential prize is huge. But catering for the investing masses is a risky business, too. For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in economics, finance and markets, sign up to Money Talks, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter.

Here's what to know about clean energy in Republican megabill headed to Trump
Here's what to know about clean energy in Republican megabill headed to Trump

Time of India

timean hour ago

  • Time of India

Here's what to know about clean energy in Republican megabill headed to Trump

Congress passed a massive tax and spending cuts package Thursday that curbs billions of dollars in spending across clean energy. That means people will be paying a lot more for home solar, energy efficiency and other green technologies - and the nation's efforts to address climate change just got a lot more challenging. The bill that awaits President Donald Trump 's signature supports mining, drilling and production of the oil, coal and gas that are largely driving Earth's warming and the increasingly deadly and costly extreme weather that comes with it. Producing and burning these fossil fuels also contributes to air pollution and human health problems. At the same time, the bill slashes tax credits for clean technologies including wind and solar energy. That will likely mean delay or cancellation of countless projects, affecting thousands of jobs and driving up household energy costs. Here are four things to know about what the bill means for clean energy: Cuts to home energy credits will make updates more costly The climate law passed during former President Joe Biden 's term included tax credits for systems and projects at home - like solar and batteries - that save homeowners money over time and significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions. These systems have gotten cheaper over the years but they're still hefty upfront expenses that some homeowners would struggle to absorb without the credits. An average rooftop solar installation can run $20,000 or more; the credit has covered almost one-third of that. An average heat pump typically costs several thousand dollars; the tax credit reimbursed up to 30% of the cost, or $2,000. The U.S. Treasury Department said more than 2 million families claimed more than $2 billion of the credit for upgrades such as windows, insulation, heating and cooling systems in tax year 2023 returns. More than 1.2 million families claimed more than $6 billion in the credit for solar installations, solar water heating, geothermal heat pumps and battery storage and other improvements that same year. The bill ends both tax credits at the end of this year. "No one asked Congress to make their energy bills even higher," said Steven Nadel , executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a nonprofit that advocates for cutting energy waste. "Taking away incentives for energy-saving improvements would raise monthly bills for families and businesses." But Republican lawmakers hailed the measure. Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said it helps unleash American energy and will save taxpayers money. "Extending good tax policy, delivering targeted relief and reining in wasteful spending is the best way to restore economic prosperity and opportunity for all Americans," he said. Electric vehicle credits disappear The bill eliminates credits of up to $7,500 for buyers of new electric vehicles and up to $4,000 for buyers of used EVs . That's likely to hurt the growth of a technology that is seen as critical to cutting down on a big source of Earth's warming. Transportation is the largest single source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions - 28% in 2022, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. EV sales have grown steadily, making up about 8% of new car sales in the U.S. last year, according to Biden had set a target for half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2030. But that purchase may be harder for consumers to swallow without a credit. EVs sold for an average of $57,734 in May, while new vehicles overall sold at an average of $48,799, according to Kelley Blue Book. The credits go away after Sept. 30. Big wind and solar projects will struggle to qualify for tax credits For large-scale wind and solar, the bill speeds up the timelines projects must meet to qualify for a tax credit. The industry says it will be nearly impossible for many projects to meet those accelerated timelines, putting massive projects from Colorado to Texas to Arizona at risk. The bill allows a full tax credit for wind and solar developments that start construction within a year of the law's enactment. But projects that begin more than a year after the bill's passage have to be operational by the end of 2027 or they won't get a credit. Atlas Public Policy, a policy consultancy, said roughly 28 gigawatts of wind and solar projects are planned to be operational after the start of 2028 but haven't begun construction yet. Under the bill, they're unlikely to qualify for a credit. Wind provides about 10% of the electricity generated in the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, with a goal of 20% by 2030. Solar is at about 4%, with the industry's target at one point to reach 30% by the end of the decade. Clean energy advocates, developers and investors say wind and solar are crucial for the nation's renewables ambitions, and tax credits help to make them viable. But Trump has pulled the U.S. out of the Paris agreement, which calls on signatories to try to keep global temperatures from warming 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. Instead, the bill supports traditional fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal, as well as nuclear power. Proponents say it will increase reliability since the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine. "Americans need reliable and affordable energy, wasteful spending needs to be cut, and our country needs to be able to build again," said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito , applauding the bill. Experts say watch out for higher energy prices But others say Americans can expect to see higher utility bills. That's unwelcome news at a time when the nation's growth in data centers, driven by demand for artificial intelligence, are sending energy use higher, and when climate change is fueling more frequent extreme weather. Nonpartisan and energy groups estimate the bill's passage could increase average annual electricity costs by more than $100 per household by next year. If fewer solar and wind projects are added to the grid because there is less incentive and it is too expensive for developers to do so without credits, some states could see increases of more than $200. "At a time when energy demand is surging and families are already struggling to make ends meet, this bill would raise costs, make the grid less reliable, and make the U.S. more dependent on foreign oil," said Lori Lodes , executive director of climate action advocacy group Climate Power. "It threatens our power supply just as extreme weather and record demand are putting historic strain on the grid, forcing brownouts and blackouts across the country." The loss of tax credits might not immediately impact project plans. But increased uncertainty makes it more difficult to invest in innovative new technologies and maintain national security. ___ Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ___ Read more of AP's climate coverage at ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store