Wal-Mart Plans To Disperse Customers And Avoid Repeat Of Black Friday

Say what you want about Wal-Mart, but two statements about the Behemoth of Bentonville are unassailable: They’re the most dominant retailing force on the globe right now; and Wal-Mart executives learn from their mistakes.

So don’t expect a repeat on November 27 – retailers’ hoped-for post-Thanksgiving Black Friday – of last year’s really black Friday, when an early-morning crowd pouring into a Wal-Mart on Long Island trampled a poor fellow to death. In part to avoid criminal charges by the Nassau County DA, Wal-Mart initiated some new crowd-control policies locally and then decided to use them nationwide for this Black Friday.

So, most U.S. Wal-Marts will remain open from Thanksgiving Day into Friday, intending to take some of the drama and danger out of the decades-old “doorbusting” tactic where the store opens early in the morning and consumes rush madly in. That was the problem in last year’s death.

And before Wal-Mart departments slash prices on specific items on Friday morning at 5 o’clock, managers will allow customers to begin to line up at different locations throughout the stores.

Other steps include bringing in a crowd-management staff and more training of regular employees in crowd control so that they can maintain orderly entry into the store.

Retailers including Best Buy and Target have been honing their skills at crowd control for years, but as usual, the industry is learning a thing or two from Wal-Mart’s approach. For the first time, the National Retail Federation issued crowd-management guidelines for special sales events like Black Friday, and many of its members have been revisiting their safety plans.

All in the hopes that, this year, the Friday after Thanksgiving will be black only for the right reasons.