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2011 crowd management

NRF Releases Crowd Management Guidelines as Holiday Season Approaches

For Immediate Release
Kathy Grannis (202)783-7971 grannisk@nrf.com
www.nrf.com/crowdmanagement

NRF Releases Crowd Management Guidelines as Holiday Season Approaches
-2011 Guidelines Feature Specific Insights on Criminal Flash Mobs, Protests-

Washington, October 13, 2011 – The biggest event of all happens to be two months long, and retailers spend months preparing for it: the holiday season. In anticipation of Black Friday and other events that bring large crowds, NRF has released its 2011 Crowd Management Guidelines, created in collaboration with retail loss prevention executives, which examines both the expected and unexpected factors in managing large crowds.

“Many families make holiday shopping an important tradition, and retailers’ main goal is to make that experience a safe and pleasant one,” said Joe LaRocca, NRF Senior Asset Protection Advisor. “Crowd management is not taken lightly for retailers, who plan ahead for months in anticipation of large events with practice runs, a well-trained staff, and a thorough analysis of the company and its customers.”

The guidelines outline essential components of a crowd management and/or emergency plan, including promotional/holiday sales and special events, mall-based retailers versus non mall-based retailers and contingency plans.

This year, NRF’s guidelines also include fresh insight on multiple offender crimes, or criminal flash mobs, and organized events or protests. Highlights include:

•   Recent examples of flash mobs, both criminal and comedic
•   Insight on how to handle celebrity appearances and organized events, including “Occupy Wall Street”
•   Analysis from a recent NRF Criminal Flash Mob report which shows that one in 10 retailers say they have been a victim of a multiple offender crime
•   An Appendix that retailers may find useful for training store associates on how to respond to flash mobs or criminal flash mob incidents

In addition to the outlined assessments, the guidelines also offer specific checklists for retailers to use when working on a crowd management plan. According to the guidelines, event type, staffing and training, communication, physical and environmental considerations and line formations are among a few of the factors that retailers should take into account for their emergency and crowd control plans.

For more information about the 2011 holiday season and NRF’s holiday forecast, visit NRF’s Holiday Headquarters.

As the world’s largest retail trade association and the voice of retail worldwide, NRF’s global membership includes retailers of all sizes, formats and channels of distribution as well as chain restaurants and industry partners from the United States and more than 45 countries abroad. In the U.S., NRF represents an industry that includes more than 3.6 million establishments and which directly and indirectly accounts for 42 million jobs – one in four U.S. jobs. The total U.S. GDP impact of retail is $2.5 trillion annually, and retail is a daily barometer of the health of the nation’s economy. www.nrf.com.

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