Due to Friday's Black Friday incidents at some Wal-Mart has increased security Bloomberg reported Friday. Extra measures also include Segway patrols, and providing live music.
"Any time you get more than 22 million people together you're going to have some behavior you're not proud of," Bill Simon, chief executive officer of Wal-Mart's United States division told Wal-Mart. "(The number of incidents) was down from last year and that it's "hard to tell what happened in any individual incident."
Wal-Mart is among a few retailers who implemented safety measures for this year's shopping season.
Wal-Mart supplied shoppers with wristbands for the company's special pre-black friday events at 6 p.m., and 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day. This allowed them to come back a couple hours later from when the event started to collect the items they bought.
Best Buy staff practiced routines for the holiday shopping season a week before. The company has also implemented a ticketing system where employees give tickets to shoppers waiting in line outside the store before it opens that align with the number of items it has available through the store's doorbuster collection. Customers can also request tickets for more than one product on the list. Only one can come from each category.
"That prevents the need for a big rush to get to the pile of TVs or whatever the hot item is," Jeff Shelman, a Best Buy spokesman told Bloomberg.
Target is using segway's to monitor its situations in store's parking lots. The retailer also has signs up to guide shoppers to popular items displayed in the store.
An officer fractured his wrist at a Rialto, Calif., Wal-Mart Thanksgiving night when attempting to end a fight between two people waiting outside of the store.
One also hurt another man with a knife after beeping his horn while waiting for a parking space at a Wal-Mart in Tazewell, Va.
Others fought over a television in Elikin, N.C.
