Black Friday Observations

[ClownLoach]

Thought it would be more convenient to have a single thread for shared discussion of Black Friday weekend observations.

[bayford]

It might be fun to play around with Google Trends. For example,

https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=US&hl=en-US

[storewanderer]

Reno Target early afternoon had tons of cars in the lot. Drive up lane had 5 of 12 spaces occupied but 3 were parked cars with nobody inside... Went into the store. Little to no difference from a couple days ago in how the store looked and how products were filled. Seasonal still had an entire aisle basically empty and little variety; still only two model artificial trees on display. They had restocked an entire aisle that was previously sort of thinned out with $15 packs of Wondershop round ornaments that were not there a few days ago; surely they could do better than this. Toys had an employee restocking and the project was a mess. Front end had 5 of ~10 checkouts open and 8 of 12 self checkouts open with customers using all lanes but no significant lines. I saw very few employees in the sales floor. The clothing area was a disaster with so much stuff all over the floors. Various "Black Friday Special" shelves were pretty empty like vacuums, and I did not see displays anywhere of overstock. There were no special displays in clothing for Black Friday.

Later in the evening I got to the Sparks Target. This store was executed much better. They had full pallet displays of various Black Friday Special items, though the number of items left on these pallets was far too many for the time I was there. They had displays of certain Black Friday clothing items (cardboard type displays of things like kid's underwear etc.) in clothing. The Christmas area had 2-3x the product of the Reno Store including models of at least 6 artificial trees. This store had 5 of 6 checkouts open and all self checkouts open (think they have about 12 of them). They had a lot more employees in the store and more picking of orders occurring. Did not look at Drive Up traffic. Employees were recovering various areas including clothing, electronics, toys, seasonal, and grocery.

I went to the Reno Mall early afternoon as well. The mall was very busy with cars parked almost out to the far edges of the parking lot, but if you drove closer to the mall you could easily find parking closer to stores. The parking lot was probably 80-90% filled. Looking at the mall there were a lot of groups of people there but doing very little shopping. I saw only a few groups "loaded with bags." I saw many more entire families with just 1-2 bags and a surprising number who were leaving emptyhanded. Probably 65% of the people with bags, had a Macys bag. Saw almost nobody with a JCP bag though the store seemed busy. Dick's was moderately busy but seemed to be single item type purchases occurring. Shoes were very popular for the "one bag families." The experience at this mall flat out sucks with kiosk employees obstructing traffic flow, filthy undersized bathrooms in the mall, just a lousy place.

Also went to two Wal Marts. The Kietzke unit with removed self checkout mid-day was busy but nothing too crazy. The seasonal department was surprisingly busy with many families shopping, they had piped in some loud Christmas music on speakers they had set up on some high shelves and they had staffing in that area helping customers get tree boxes, etc. The general merchandise side of the store was much busier than usual (toys, auto, sporting goods, home, electronics) but the clothing area was largely deserted and grocery was obviously less busy than usual. The electronics area had 15-20 customer groups present and two employees on registers back there with constant traffic. Not sure what was going in back there but they had something to draw customers. The front end had 13 of 33 checkstands open, and the 2 of 2 remaining self checkouts still open. The 7 registers open directly near grocery had lines of 3-4 customers each but the other registers mostly just had 1-2 customers at a time using them.

Later in the evening I went to another Wal Mart, very late. This store was not busy by the time I got there and looking around the store either they were recovering it all day it it was not busy at all in that store today.

Also went to Kohls, early evening. I was curious what their hours today were but the hours on their door were for the week ending November 16, so who knows what their hours are. The store had 1 cashier open but it had constant traffic. Sephora area had 3 employees standing around talking, did not acknowledge me, probably know I am not a customer for them. There seemed to be a good amount of activity back at the returns area of the store, but still just one employee. There was also one employee in shoes. Other than that, I did not see any other employees in Kohls. So basically staffing felt like "just another night" at Kohls aside from Sephora having one extra person. The store was pretty neat and orderly. They do not have many product displays in center aisles and Kohls feels like it is dying off to me compared to how it used to be on Black Friday before COVID.

Overall this Black Friday strikes me as a total dud. There were not many good deals out there at all. Little to no reason to shop it in my opinion.

[ClownLoach]

Similar to @storewanderer I was shocked by how busy Macy's was. Not just traffic which high across both large units (the Mens/Kids/Furniture and Women's stores) but how many people were buying. Each floor had at least a few hundred customers. I would say each building at any point had over a hundred customers in line, some with big armloads of product. It was clear their largest opportunities were self inflicted- the removal of so many registers translated to very long lines. I did see a few extra standalone registers had been added using random fixtures or even a cart, so it could have been much worse. Signage educating the customer about their version of Scan & Go on their app but no employees telling customers to use it on the floor. Every register was in use in every department including furniture, the dead zone in the store, where some smart shoppers figured out they could drag their loads of products and coax the commissioned people there to ring them up instead of watching the dust settle on the couches. This store pair is one of their F50 initiative stores. I am torn about this initiative. This store is well executed from top to bottom across both buildings and looked packed with product, well decorated with all new Christmas decor with a "Give Love" theme instead of the classic but stale "Believe" decor in use at other stores.

I have heard there's currently only a 4% improvement in comps between regular stores and F50, but the experience is so much better and execution is more what you expect from a Bloomingdales. The improvement is shocking from a year ago in the same store that I thought was well run before, and that tells me there's a huge runway ahead as previously disappointed customers hear or find that the store has been upgraded (even though it wasn't really remodeled, just all the deferred maintenance resolved, fresh white paint everywhere, no burned out lights, maybe new carpet). It really is at that Bloomingdales merchandising level just with Macy's product. The problem I see is that they obviously can afford to run these F50 stores at this high level, but not the rest of the fleet, and those are now detractors from the brand. I think they need to speed up "bold new chapter" or whatever the initiative is and kill off the non F50 sites as fast as they can. Make the F50 stores into real destination sites, give them some external branding to symbolize this is a premiere store that not only isn't going away but also delivers a superior experience. Maybe something like Macy's Grand or some similar branding (yes I'm chuckling about that when I think of Sears Grand). That will prevent the perception they're all going when the stores that can't afford this improved level of stocking, improved level of service, cleaned up facilities, etc. go away. I have to think they called these the "First 50" because they intend to expand the program in the future, but I don't know what the final number should look like. My guess is it's a number well under 200 that should survive, might be closer to 125 full size stores total that should be kept. They also need to take all "B" malls with two buildings and consolidate to one as discussed previously, the "B" mall stores don't get enough merchandise now and could fit it all in one building. It is clear to see that they've been starving the good stores of merchandise, payroll, store upkeep, etc. to prop up the bad stores and the time is now to just ditch all the bad ones. Overall it's nice to see that customers will shop and buy a lot at department stores when they're an impressive display, a great experience, priced fairly, and have the product the customer wants in stock.

As great as Macy's was, the rest of the mall seemed packed with lookers and not buyers. Some stores are going back to what will forever be called COVID lines and it isn't a good look. Pandora, Charlotte Ruese and others had the queues of customers outside and only a few let in at a time. In a jewelry store where everything is already locked up it is rather pointless to do this and prevent the customer from browsing. The most common bags I saw carried were Victoria's Secret, but when I walked by I saw a 40% off sign which my wife said isn't necessarily a great deal unless you want to make smaller purchases, they usually bundle X number for $ and savings are a higher overall percentage sometimes approaching 70%. I don't think the mall stores are doing much in sales. Apple is outside in the promenade so I didn't look but assume they had lines, and they don't have Lego, I know those are the top two performers per square foot in mall sales today. The rest could disappear tomorrow and I don't think I'd care.

JCPenney was a train wreck. Big metal cages of clothing in each department that indicated they never finished restocking the store for the biggest day of the year, fresh off the truck goods that were turning into reshop bins. We were looking for baby clothes for gifts and JCP did have better priced and better selection than Macy's in the category, but they have ridiculous sales policies that just pissed me off. For example the sign says 60% off Carters and then lists price points and final discount on a menu. Sounds good until you notice the tiniest fine print at the bottom, only those specific price points are discounted. So many baby sets were originally $22 but the price point of $22 was not discounted 60%, only $20 and $24. The $22 one was scanning on a different sale that I didn't see any sign for, $14.99. So I had to download their crappy app as a price scanner since none in the store that I saw. Finally picked out three baby items and found the one register cluster with more than one person. Even Jewelry had only one employee which I think is a safety issue. If you told me they only had a dozen employees total working on Black Friday in the whole building I'd believe it. This one counter at the back of the store I picked had 4 people, but one was dedicated to returns and one online pickups. Signs weren't clear, no stanchions or tape to manage lines or differentiate what was what, and lots of customers being told they needed to go back around to the other line for pickups which is ridiculous. Their POS equipment is barely functioning too, scanners that don't work and screens that have lost all color or worse the touch screen part is completely broken so employees were having a lot of trouble having to use keyboard combinations or the little track pad which greatly slowed down the entire process. Every register looked like it needed to be replaced, and they had cans of soda and water bottles scattered all over the disheveled workstation, looked like a pigsty. Other retailers at least have the employees hide their water and such under the counter, these were inches from the PIN pad. I would not have bought anything if we didn't need it because of how terrible the experience was.

I was at Dicks last week and they were packed full of merchandise and not priced well. They are like Kohl's in my opinion, too many items that are full MSRP and never go on sale. They can be a great looking store but I would only buy if I felt like I was getting a deal. There's nothing in there I can't live without. There's a lot I would buy if the pricing was better. It wasn't worth the walk across the mall to even look yesterday.

Food court was busy, but I noticed a vacant Subway. I am almost 100% sure that Subway was in business two weeks ago. Another funny time to close down. I noticed that the Macy's Women's store had added a first floor Starbucks, with a brown version of the new fixture seen at the grocery stores. The store takes mobile orders. I didn't get close enough to see the POS and if it is Macy's operated or Starbucks corporate. Smart location though because it is the polar opposite end of the mall from the other Starbucks. It will pull customers into Macy's because of its location. The mall store is on the deader end by Dicks, JCP, and Round 1.

The overarching theme though was the items heavily discounted, like 60% off, were what I thought was a fair price after the discounts. Macy's had a fancy Christmas wreath I think I'll go back and see if it's still there (they were consolidating the three large pads of Christmas decor to 2 due to rapid sell through, last year they had one lame little pad). That wreath had a full price of $112, it is high quality and a unique style that matches my front door, and it scanned $40 on sale. That's probably $10 more than the similar Sam's Club or Hobby Lobby ones but this is better quality and I think it's an acceptable price. But if I saw it for the first time at $112 I would have laughed and tossed it back on the rack. Worse, I never would have even conceived the idea it could go on sale for $40, so I never would have come back or checked on it again. It would just be a lost sale to the store. They had some bath sheet towels that were $68 a piece regular price before 70% off and nice quality, but it is so ridiculous to see that inflated price for one towel and then compare to the two cart loads I bought couple years ago at Costco that are great quality and holding up well. The American consumer has to start to wake up and recognize that when all they want to see is the highest possible percent off, all the retailers do is accommodate them with ridiculously high ticket price but it hurts business overall and leaves the customer with less choice and less good deals.

Overall I thought it was not much of an event. But it was refreshing to see Macy's alive and well and customers responding when they out-executed the rest of the mall.

[Romr123]

I've got a December birthday, so a family tradition was an evening visit growing up to Plaza Frontenac in St. Louis (Neiman/Saks/FB Ltd at the time) with dinner at Magic Pan. Husband and I have continued this with a trip to Somerset (Macys/Nordstrom/Neiman/Saks) with dinner at a luxury chain restaurant (LOL).

Will be very interesting to see that Macys (built as Hudsons/Marshall Fields and only about 210k sqft) and how it looks. There is talk that the Oakland Mall store which is about 5 miles away and is enormous (400k sqft) is on it's way out. Unclear if they will downsize to a furniture store in a strip near Oakland Mall (tbh the Somerset neighborhood and surrounding retail just isn't a home furnishings neighborhood).

[storewanderer]

Similar to @storewanderer I was shocked by how busy Macy's was. Not just traffic which high across both large units (the Mens/Kids/Furniture and Women's stores) but how many people were buying. Each floor had at least a few hundred customers. I would say each building at any point had over a hundred customers in line, some with big armloads of product. It was clear their largest opportunities were self inflicted- the removal of so many registers translated to very long lines. I did see a few extra standalone registers had been added using random fixtures or even a cart, so it could have been much worse. Signage educating the customer about their version of Scan & Go on their app but no employees telling customers to use it on the floor. Every register was in use in every department including furniture, the dead zone in the store, where some smart shoppers figured out they could drag their loads of products and coax the commissioned people there to ring them up instead of watching the dust settle on the couches. This store pair is one of their F50 initiative stores. I am torn about this initiative. This store is well executed from top to bottom across both buildings and looked packed with product, well decorated with all new Christmas decor with a "Give Love" theme instead of the classic but stale "Believe" decor in use at other stores.

I have heard there's currently only a 4% improvement in comps between regular stores and F50, but the experience is so much better and execution is more what you expect from a Bloomingdales. The improvement is shocking from a year ago in the same store that I thought was well run before, and that tells me there's a huge runway ahead as previously disappointed customers hear or find that the store has been upgraded (even though it wasn't really remodeled, just all the deferred maintenance resolved, fresh white paint everywhere, no burned out lights, maybe new carpet). It really is at that Bloomingdales merchandising level just with Macy's product. The problem I see is that they obviously can afford to run these F50 stores at this high level, but not the rest of the fleet, and those are now detractors from the brand. I think they need to speed up "bold new chapter" or whatever the initiative is and kill off the non F50 sites as fast as they can. Make the F50 stores into real destination sites, give them some external branding to symbolize this is a premiere store that not only isn't going away but also delivers a superior experience. Maybe something like Macy's Grand or some similar branding (yes I'm chuckling about that when I think of Sears Grand). That will prevent the perception they're all going when the stores that can't afford this improved level of stocking, improved level of service, cleaned up facilities, etc. go away. I have to think they called these the "First 50" because they intend to expand the program in the future, but I don't know what the final number should look like. My guess is it's a number well under 200 that should survive, might be closer to 125 full size stores total that should be kept. They also need to take all "B" malls with two buildings and consolidate to one as discussed previously, the "B" mall stores don't get enough merchandise now and could fit it all in one building. It is clear to see that they've been starving the good stores of merchandise, payroll, store upkeep, etc. to prop up the bad stores and the time is now to just ditch all the bad ones. Overall it's nice to see that customers will shop and buy a lot at department stores when they're an impressive display, a great experience, priced fairly, and have the product the customer wants in stock.

As great as Macy's was, the rest of the mall seemed packed with lookers and not buyers. Some stores are going back to what will forever be called COVID lines and it isn't a good look. Pandora, Charlotte Ruese and others had the queues of customers outside and only a few let in at a time. In a jewelry store where everything is already locked up it is rather pointless to do this and prevent the customer from browsing. The most common bags I saw carried were Victoria's Secret, but when I walked by I saw a 40% off sign which my wife said isn't necessarily a great deal unless you want to make smaller purchases, they usually bundle X number for $ and savings are a higher overall percentage sometimes approaching 70%. I don't think the mall stores are doing much in sales. Apple is outside in the promenade so I didn't look but assume they had lines, and they don't have Lego, I know those are the top two performers per square foot in mall sales today. The rest could disappear tomorrow and I don't think I'd care.

JCPenney was a train wreck. Big metal cages of clothing in each department that indicated they never finished restocking the store for the biggest day of the year, fresh off the truck goods that were turning into reshop bins. We were looking for baby clothes for gifts and JCP did have better priced and better selection than Macy's in the category, but they have ridiculous sales policies that just pissed me off. For example the sign says 60% off Carters and then lists price points and final discount on a menu. Sounds good until you notice the tiniest fine print at the bottom, only those specific price points are discounted. So many baby sets were originally $22 but the price point of $22 was not discounted 60%, only $20 and $24. The $22 one was scanning on a different sale that I didn't see any sign for, $14.99. So I had to download their crappy app as a price scanner since none in the store that I saw. Finally picked out three baby items and found the one register cluster with more than one person. Even Jewelry had only one employee which I think is a safety issue. If you told me they only had a dozen employees total working on Black Friday in the whole building I'd believe it. This one counter at the back of the store I picked had 4 people, but one was dedicated to returns and one online pickups. Signs weren't clear, no stanchions or tape to manage lines or differentiate what was what, and lots of customers being told they needed to go back around to the other line for pickups which is ridiculous. Their POS equipment is barely functioning too, scanners that don't work and screens that have lost all color or worse the touch screen part is completely broken so employees were having a lot of trouble having to use keyboard combinations or the little track pad which greatly slowed down the entire process. Every register looked like it needed to be replaced, and they had cans of soda and water bottles scattered all over the disheveled workstation, looked like a pigsty. Other retailers at least have the employees hide their water and such under the counter, these were inches from the PIN pad. I would not have bought anything if we didn't need it because of how terrible the experience was.

I was at Dicks last week and they were packed full of merchandise and not priced well. They are like Kohl's in my opinion, too many items that are full MSRP and never go on sale. They can be a great looking store but I would only buy if I felt like I was getting a deal. There's nothing in there I can't live without. There's a lot I would buy if the pricing was better. It wasn't worth the walk across the mall to even look yesterday.

Food court was busy, but I noticed a vacant Subway. I am almost 100% sure that Subway was in business two weeks ago. Another funny time to close down. I noticed that the Macy's Women's store had added a first floor Starbucks, with a brown version of the new fixture seen at the grocery stores. The store takes mobile orders. I didn't get close enough to see the POS and if it is Macy's operated or Starbucks corporate. Smart location though because it is the polar opposite end of the mall from the other Starbucks. It will pull customers into Macy's because of its location. The mall store is on the deader end by Dicks, JCP, and Round 1.

The overarching theme though was the items heavily discounted, like 60% off, were what I thought was a fair price after the discounts. Macy's had a fancy Christmas wreath I think I'll go back and see if it's still there (they were consolidating the three large pads of Christmas decor to 2 due to rapid sell through, last year they had one lame little pad). That wreath had a full price of $112, it is high quality and a unique style that matches my front door, and it scanned $40 on sale. That's probably $10 more than the similar Sam's Club or Hobby Lobby ones but this is better quality and I think it's an acceptable price. But if I saw it for the first time at $112 I would have laughed and tossed it back on the rack. Worse, I never would have even conceived the idea it could go on sale for $40, so I never would have come back or checked on it again. It would just be a lost sale to the store. They had some bath sheet towels that were $68 a piece regular price before 70% off and nice quality, but it is so ridiculous to see that inflated price for one towel and then compare to the two cart loads I bought couple years ago at Costco that are great quality and holding up well. The American consumer has to start to wake up and recognize that when all they want to see is the highest possible percent off, all the retailers do is accommodate them with ridiculously high ticket price but it hurts business overall and leaves the customer with less choice and less good deals.

Overall I thought it was not much of an event. But it was refreshing to see Macy's alive and well and customers responding when they out-executed the rest of the mall.

Kohls has largely removed price scanners. I took a receipt survey for Kohl's in Carson City and gave a bunch of negative ratings and made comments about my dissatisfaction with their store pertaining to lack of price scanners. The price scanners were returned to that store. I thought this may work and tried again on the receipt survey for the Kohl's in Sparks- no such luck yet, still no price scanners. Their app isn't too bad, it works without being logged in and checks prices fairly quickly. I uninstall it as I am waiting in line to pay or as I walk out of the store.

JCP app was tons of fun. It seemed like every price I checked took 30 seconds to process after I scanned. I don't think JCP has ever had price scanners.

These % off sales may appeal to a small segment of less than informed consumers but as time goes on more and more customers become wise to this sort of thing. I notice the pricing in Macy's in particular (and to a lesser extent Kohl's) is just plain weird. Strange amounts like that $68 you see, or retails of $57.50, other odd amounts. Gone are the simple $50, $55, $60 type retails.

[mjhale]

Some stores are going back to what will forever be called COVID lines and it isn't a good look. Pandora, Charlotte Ruese and others had the queues of customers outside and only a few let in at a time. In a jewelry store where everything is already locked up it is rather pointless to do this and prevent the customer from browsing.

What is the reason behind the return of the queue lines? Anti-theft measure? Lack of staffing to reasonably serve a very busy store on Black Friday? Just because they can? I guess these stores have forgotten about browsers who become buyers when the impulse hits them. Perhaps these stores should observe an Apple store where people come in to "play" with all of the different devices they have on display. Even if a small fraction of the people who come through an Apple store on a daily basis buy something, I think Apple is going to have a good sales day.

[ClownLoach]

Some stores are going back to what will forever be called COVID lines and it isn't a good look. Pandora, Charlotte Ruese and others had the queues of customers outside and only a few let in at a time. In a jewelry store where everything is already locked up it is rather pointless to do this and prevent the customer from browsing.

What is the reason behind the return of the queue lines? Anti-theft measure? Lack of staffing to reasonably serve a very busy store on Black Friday? Just because they can? I guess these stores have forgotten about browsers who become buyers when the impulse hits them. Perhaps these stores should observe an Apple store where people come in to "play" with all of the different devices they have on display. Even if a small fraction of the people who come through an Apple store on a daily basis buy something, I think Apple is going to have a good sales day.

I'm not sure what they are thinking. Some of the outlet stores have been doing this even before COVID. Certain women's purse outlet stores would do this to create the illusion of their product being some kind of sensation and everyone wants to get their hands on one (Kate Spade was notorious for this). After all if there's a line to get in then it must be worth the wait, right? And obviously everyone wants to get one?

I think the trend started with Apple though. When they would have a iPhone launch they would have lines around the block. Steve Jobs used to show up at some stores for the launch event. Then they got smart and realized how much labor they were wasting on these dumb launches and moved to pre-sales.

[storewanderer]

Some stores are going back to what will forever be called COVID lines and it isn't a good look. Pandora, Charlotte Ruese and others had the queues of customers outside and only a few let in at a time. In a jewelry store where everything is already locked up it is rather pointless to do this and prevent the customer from browsing.

What is the reason behind the return of the queue lines? Anti-theft measure? Lack of staffing to reasonably serve a very busy store on Black Friday? Just because they can? I guess these stores have forgotten about browsers who become buyers when the impulse hits them. Perhaps these stores should observe an Apple store where people come in to "play" with all of the different devices they have on display. Even if a small fraction of the people who come through an Apple store on a daily basis buy something, I think Apple is going to have a good sales day.

I'm not sure what they are thinking. Some of the outlet stores have been doing this even before COVID. Certain women's purse outlet stores would do this to create the illusion of their product being some kind of sensation and everyone wants to get their hands on one (Kate Spade was notorious for this). After all if there's a line to get in then it must be worth the wait, right? And obviously everyone wants to get one?

I think the trend started with Apple though. When they would have a iPhone launch they would have lines around the block. Steve Jobs used to show up at some stores for the launch event. Then they got smart and realized how much labor they were wasting on these dumb launches and moved to pre-sales.

I am by no means the target audience for these supposed "luxury" brands who limit how many customers can enter and like to have a queue line out front. Huge turnoff to me.

It makes me think of when I was a kid/teen. Multiple schools I attended had a convenience store nearby that was frequented before/after school or during lunch. There was always this policy- limit 3 students inside at a time, limit 5 students inside at a time, whatever. So there was a line up out front. It was clear the reason for this- they were concerned about theft. I never appreciated this.

These "luxury brands" must not trust their customers.

[ClownLoach]

What is the reason behind the return of the queue lines? Anti-theft measure? Lack of staffing to reasonably serve a very busy store on Black Friday? Just because they can? I guess these stores have forgotten about browsers who become buyers when the impulse hits them. Perhaps these stores should observe an Apple store where people come in to "play" with all of the different devices they have on display. Even if a small fraction of the people who come through an Apple store on a daily basis buy something, I think Apple is going to have a good sales day.

I'm not sure what they are thinking. Some of the outlet stores have been doing this even before COVID. Certain women's purse outlet stores would do this to create the illusion of their product being some kind of sensation and everyone wants to get their hands on one (Kate Spade was notorious for this). After all if there's a line to get in then it must be worth the wait, right? And obviously everyone wants to get one?

I think the trend started with Apple though. When they would have a iPhone launch they would have lines around the block. Steve Jobs used to show up at some stores for the launch event. Then they got smart and realized how much labor they were wasting on these dumb launches and moved to pre-sales.

I am by no means the target audience for these supposed "luxury" brands who limit how many customers can enter and like to have a queue line out front. Huge turnoff to me.

It makes me think of when I was a kid/teen. Multiple schools I attended had a convenience store nearby that was frequented before/after school or during lunch. There was always this policy- limit 3 students inside at a time, limit 5 students inside at a time, whatever. So there was a line up out front. It was clear the reason for this- they were concerned about theft. I never appreciated this.

These "luxury brands" must not trust their customers.

For Apple launch events it was legitimately a matter of the maximum occupancy of the building. This also has happened during the holidays or product launches at the Lego store in certain locations. For legitimate special events like those I understand the need as the stores aren't physically large enough for the crowd. Go to a Lego store on a big launch day like January 1st or May 4th (Star Wars day) and other such special events. I guarantee those little Lego stores are doing tens of thousands of dollars each hour with all those big sets in the $200 to $400 range flying out the door. I've been in those lines and watched people buying two or three of each set and walking out a couple thousand deeper in credit card debt.

For the luxury brands I don't believe that this is needed for a minute, it isn't a shrink matter either, it was purely to create an image through artificial crowds. I don't get that either. Blocking the pathways with your line is just going to get me to walk around the other side and miss you completely.

And for the more mainstream brands I saw doing this at the mall, it just comes off as insulting shrink control where you're assuming every customer is a thief and even if I wanted something from your store I would not buy it under those circumstances. If I saw what appeared to be crowds inside approaching fire limit that is different.