Black Friday - Controlling the Chaos?

[Curtis Baillie]

Here's a link to an article I wrote last year, for SecurityInfoWatch, in response to the unfortunate incident that took place at the Valley Stream (Green Acres Mall) NY Walmart store. Since there's a thread started regarding "Black Friday" in the Loss Prevention forums, I thought I would start a topic about what various retailers do to control the crowds during "Black Friday" or other "door buster" events.

What started the chain of events at Valley Stream was the crowd who waited in their cars and at the last minute rushed the crowd that was lined up and waiting. What would you do to eliminate this problem? Here's one of my recommendations.

Every retail location only has say 25 DVR recorders, per location, for the event. I advise them to make up 25 brightly colored, numbered "tickets" made out of card stock and issue them to the crowd. Have employees working the line, telling the crowd that all of the tickets have been issued for the DVR's. Make up different colored tickets for every item you have that is featured in your ad. This is just one of my recommendations for controlling the chaos - what are some of yours. Please do not identify the retailer.

[jailbelle]

I'll identify my company. It's Walmart. I won't go into the changes but there are many, many new and different controls in place for Black Friday this year - all are geared toward protecting the public and responding quickly.

[Curtis Baillie]

Jailbelle - You're correct. Walmart has planned sweeping changes that are supposed to be implemented throughout the chain. They consulted with sports and other venues on how to control crowds. Along with other changes this should make for a much safer Black Friday event.....at least for Walmart and its customers. Now if only other retailers have learned the lessons that Walmart has.