How Walmart Plans to Manage Black Friday Crowds This Year

Those infamous scenes of crowds thronging a Walmart store on Black Friday for deals on a big screen TV or a road bike will not be repeated this year, thanks to COVID-19.

The discount retailer said on Wednesday it was implementing strict crowd control measures on what has traditionally been a day where tens of millions of Americans hit stores to snap up bargains.

To avoid being overwhelmed by shopper traffic at a time many store workers and consumers are wary of being in crowded stores because of the pandemic, Walmart this year is opting to spread out Black Friday deals over three separate periods starting in early November. For the deals coming the week of Thanksgiving, Walmart will offer them online first on Wednesday, Nov. 25th before making them available in stores on Black Friday, when stores open at 5 a.m., the better to reduce any rush on stores.