Black Friday, the annual day after Thanksgiving sales held by retailers to ignite their busy holiday shopping season, has typically been marked by deep discounts and throngs of people filling malls and stores across the nation. These crowds, some of which begin lining up hours before stores even open, have also been a major security concern over the years as employees and customers have been trampled or even violently assaulted as people try to be the first to get their hands on the most highly-coveted goods.
Though much of the frenzied shopping has been more subdued over the past several years as e-commerce and Cyber Monday have taken some of the wind out of the sails of brick-and-mortar sales events, many people have still flocked to stores over the holiday weekend to take advantage of a deal here or there. This year, however, with the Covid-19 pandemic still raging throughout the nation, Black Friday sales will be unlike any other in recent memory.
While crowd control and de-escalation may have been the priority for retail security professionals in years past, 2020 will see health and safety become top of mind as stores seek to mitigate the spread of the virus in their communities. However, just because the crowds may be more subdued that does not mean loss prevention can rest easier.
According to Craig Matsumoto, Vice President at Allied Universal Risk Advisory and Consulting Services, many retailers – in response to the pandemic and some even before Covid-19 became part of our lexicon – have started to expand the window of what exactly constitutes Black Friday as these sales have become weeks-long events in some cases.
“A lot of that is because they would be in positions where they have to control the number of customers visiting their location and they also have to be able to manage the flow of customers in and out of the stores in a much more efficient way than in years past because of Covid issues,” Matsumoto explains.
Christopher McGourty, the Founder and Executive Director of the National Anti-Organized Retail Crime Association (NAORCA Worldwide), believes that while most people will do their holiday shopping online this year, stores could still see some heavy foot traffic if they decide to offer in-store only bargains. “I think it truly depends on the savings, especially when people are still unemployed and saving for necessities,” he adds.
Protecting Employees and Customers
Both Matsumoto and McGourty agree that stores should be bringing in additional security personnel this holiday season, not only to help with addressing loss prevention concerns and crowds but the increased agitations that come with shopping in the midst of Covid and the policies put in place to help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, such as mask wearing requirements. A security guard in Chicago was recently stabbed more than 20 times after asking two sisters to wear masks and use hand sanitizer.
“Trends show shoplifters and individuals not happy with the Covid mask wearing restrictions are getting more violent and retailers should prepare and put measures in place to protect staff and communicate all security incidents to local law enforcement,” McGourty says.
Aside from hiring more security personnel, McGourty recommends that retailers bring in additional sales staff to interact with shoppers, limit the number of customers allowed in a store at a given time, and mandate the wearing of masks so as to leave no ambiguity in customers’ minds.
“Retailers need to advertise the sales but should also make customers aware that masks are mandated, and that store security, management and law enforcement will enforce this policy,” he says. “Safety and security are our main priority for all our customers, employees and vendors.”
Matsumoto advises retailers to provide a “control point” at their entrances with an additional security presence, manned preferably by an off-duty police officer, for crowd control, especially when there is going to be an event that brings in more shoppers than normal.
“You want to have enough staffing to allow that control to take place without the overruns we’ve seen in the past on some occasions. That’s a starting point,” he says. “Also, you want to make sure your employees are well-educated and that they understand the things that they need to do from a service standpoint but not create conflict or any kind of altercation that might happen because of the increased activity.”
ORC Taking Advantage of Pandemic
Of course, thieves will not be taking the holidays off just because there is an ongoing pandemic. In fact, McGourty believes organized retail crime (ORC) rings will be as active as ever and recommends that retailers beef up staff at the front end of their stores to prevent “grab and runs” from displays as well as test and check alarms on emergency and backroom exits.
“These groups will look to distract employees and steal products they can then sell online,” he adds. “Loss prevention should be very careful confronting and apprehending shoplifters, especially with Covid-19 being so rampant.”
Matsumoto agrees that ORC thieves will likely be out in force this holiday season looking to take advantage of the increased traffic and the ability to blend into crowds, albeit smaller ones this year. “There is definitely going to be an increase as many retailers have already experienced,” he says.
Joel Griffin is the Editor of SecurityInfoWatch.com and a veteran security journalist. You can reach him at [email protected].
