Shopper safety: OSHA urging retailers to step up Black Friday precautions

From Bloomberg News

Crowd control is job oneWal-Mart Stores Inc. and other retailers are being told by the government to take greater precautions with their Black Friday shopping events to avoid a repeat of last year, when a worker was trampled by customers.

Guidance from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration includes using a bullhorn to manage crowds, setting up barricades or rope lines and clearing the entrances of shopping carts and other potentially dangerous obstacles, according to a statement released by the agency.

“OSHA is truly hitting every industry, and moving beyond the traditional OSHA issues like asbestos or lead,” said Brad Hammock, a lawyer at Jackson Lewis LLP in Reston, Va., who advises companies on how to comply with the OSHA law. “It’s a new world. They are reaching retail shopping.”

The National Retail Federation issued its own guidelines for its members earlier this month, and Bentonville, Arkansas- based Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, is extending store hours to manage crowds. The holiday shopping season, which often accounts for at least a third of U.S. retailers’ annual profits, traditionally starts the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Retailers including Target Corp., Best Buy Co. and Macy’s Inc. typically offer steep one-day Black Friday discounts on merchandise to lure shoppers, a practice that attracts larger- than normal crowds. Jdimytai Damour, a temporary worker, was trampled to death on Nov. 28 when shoppers stormed the entrance of a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, New York, as it opened at 5 a.m.

Wal-Mart said last week it will leave most of its 833 U.S. stores open overnight on Thanksgiving to avoid fostering crowds on Friday morning of unmanageable size. The U.S. Thanksgiving holiday falls on Nov. 26 this year.

OSHA’s guidelines also include using an Internet lottery for “hot” sales items, staffing entrances with uniformed guards, and providing public toilets.

“We’re always trying to keep workers safe,” said Diana Petterson, an OSHA spokeswoman.

Jockeying for discounted merchandise may intensify this year as rising unemployment makes consumers more desperate for bargains and retailers make more aggressive markdowns to spur sales, National Retail Federation executives said last week.