Pandemic brings saner Black Friday

Just a trickle of shoppers wandered through Macy’s on Herald Square in New York an hour after it opened. Many stores reported—or planned for—smaller crowds on Black Friday, reflecting concerns about further spread of the coronavirus. It will still likely prove the busiest shopping day of the year.

What did stores do to keep shoppers safe? In the most popular outdoor mall in Austin, Texas, employees counted heads to keep the number of shoppers below 75 percent of store capacity. At Macy’s in New York, workers sanitized door knobs and windows. Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., spread its Black Friday deals over eight days to tamp down on large crowds. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said shopping in crowded stores during the holidays is a “higher risk” activity.

Dig deeper: Read Sharon Dierberger’s report on theaters and producers pinning their hopes on Wonder Woman 1984 to revive a struggling industry during the pandemic.