Crowd management is not the fundamental problem.
I’ve been looking at the Black Friday story Jeff linked to a while back. The line that strikes me as interesting is this:
Instead lining up outside Walmart, customers can gather in different areas of the store, waiting for the deals to begin, Tovar said.
[emphasis added]
Gather? Will they be gathering in line or is it just going to be a free-for-all? Sounds like a free-for-all:
The plan calls for the hottest items — marked-down TVs, toys and laptop computers, for example — to be placed far apart to prevent big crowds from gathering.
Ah, the poorman’s security plan from the biggest retailer in the world. Did Walmart ever think about hiring more security (or perhaps even more security would be teh right way to put it)? And why do they need security in the first place? Because Black Friday at Walmart is actually a classic bait-and-switch routine.
I predict at least one riot with no deaths, but one to three lawsuits when the dust settles.
we are putting up rope to keep customers in a line just like at an amusement park.If there is only a small amount of the one item,tickets will be passed out to the first in line.The others will be told it is sold out.There will also be line monitors to prevent line jumping.Passes will also be issued for 15 minutes if you need a break.
What happens when all those tickets go all of ten people back in line? Ahhhhh…I can feel the love already.
On the limited number items, there is to be a WM employee passing out the items, instead of a free for all grabbing of the merchandise as in years past. Another person is to be a line monitor. If there’s a problem, then they’re to call a member of the “quick response team”. And if that fails, then they call the Asset Protection person, who will come with a police officer to handle the situation. Yes, only one police officer to handle the crowd in the whole store (might be more in larger stores/bigger towns). You let the people run wild all year long, and then expect them to behave one day out of the year. Should be fun. Come join us, Jonathan. lol
Oh, and we were told the merchandise is to be on the floor by 3 am, with the sale to begin at 5. Two hours or more of guarding the merchandise. What’s wrong with that picture?
Do you propose for the sale to start at 5 and employees to be trying to drag the merchandise though the sales floor, lined with people, at 4:30?
Not at all. I’m just thinking that it’s going to be hard to police all those items under the new plan for 2 hours or more. What’s going to happen when employees need a bathroom break? Five am is normally our break time, so if you’ve been standing there since 3 am, and you have to hand out merchandise and police the lines after 5 am, you’re at risk of missing a break. (Not that WM will care.) People at my store routinely ignore signs, ropes, etc. even with you standing there watching them. It’s going to be fun watching this.
[...] Part one down. Now I’ll just wait for the lawsuits. [...]