Holiday Crowds

Christmas is only a week away, which means that the shopping crowds are likely to grow as people try to get their last minute gifts. While this is great for business, it is not so great for people who hate crowds. Today we’re going to offer our advice for beating the crowds, or how to endure them if you can't avoid them.

Shop on Less Busy Days

With so few days left until Christmas this can be difficult to implement. The weekend before Christmas is a very busy time for malls. Christmas Eve is another day to avoid, and even December 23^rd has a history of being busy. If you can manage it the best day to shop to avoid the crowds would be Monday, December 22^nd. Shop during the week while most people are busy at work to get holiday shopping done without the crowds.

Shop Small Businesses

Small, local businesses are generally not nearly as busy as malls and department stores. Not only will this help you avoid the crowds, this will help support the local community and allow you to purchase a less commercial gift for your loved ones. Maybe you know of some already, or maybe you need to do some research. Either way, a local business is a great way to avoid being packed in with hundreds or thousands of other shoppers.

Shop Online

This close to Christmas getting your gifts in time is going to cost you. To some people however, it is worth it to avoid the crowds. Don’t wait much longer though! In 2013 many people waited until the last minute, and shipping companies did not have the resources or time to get everyone their packages. If you want to buy online, do it now.

Shop the Mall Early, or Late

Stores will be less busy in the early hours of the morning as well as closer to closing time. The biggest crowds will materialize in the middle of the day, roughly between 10:00 AM and 7:00 PM. This gives you a limited shopping window, but if you just need a couple last minute items this is a good strategy.

Shop with Acceptance

If none of the above options work for you, it may be time to accept that you are going to have to deal with the crowds. Approach this with acceptance and a good attitude. No one likes waiting in long lines and fighting through people to find the items they want. Be polite as you do your shopping and schedule a little extra time into your day than you may normally to account for the crowds.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year from all of us to you. Here is to the start of a great 2015!

Crowd Control for Black Friday

Black Friday is just over a week away. If you are a retailer, are you prepared for the big day? With such large sales happening across the country, it is important to have adequate crowd control to prevent accidents from happening, to both the customers and your employees. It is essential you take the proper steps to ensure everyone has a safe Black Friday experience. Today we’re going to offer our tips for proper crowd control on one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

~ Schedule additional staff to help take the pressure off your employees. Not having enough staff during a big promotion can become a big problem.

~Use crowd control items such as barricades or rope lines well in advance of the big sale. Customers will often line up a day or more before Black Friday, so have this ready early! This will ensure that the lines outside of your store are organized.

~Place big sale items throughout the store to prevent overcrowding in certain areas or departments. This will reduce the risk of injury.

~Provide a separate store entrance for staff for their safety.

~Place security or crowd control managers near the doors, but never in front of them. Customers have been known to rush the store, and someone may be injured.

~ Place staff outside of the doors to prevent customers from entering as the doors are being unlocked. Have them remind customers of your entrance procedures to get your customers inside in a safe and controlled way. 

~Be sure to have an emergency plan, and communicate it to all staff members. 

Follow these steps to keep your store, employees, and customers safe during this big retail holiday! You can never be too cautious when it comes to an event like this. Practice smart crowd control, and enjoy the boost in sales!

Election Time

 It is election time, and soon there will be lines of people waiting to cast their important vote. The one downside to voting? The crowds. Today we’re going to give advice to try and beat the crowds on election

day.

First off, go early if you can. A lot of people head to the polls right after work, and lines will be long. Plus, who wants to stand in a long line right after they got off work? Consider building time into your schedule to go before work. Lunch breaks are another peak time at the polls so we suggest avoiding then as well, unless you happen to take an early or late lunch.

If you do not have a traditional 9-5 job, this puts you in a great position for voting. You can choose any time of the day to go in. Late morning and early afternoon will have smaller crowds as many people will be at work, decreasing your wait time.

If you do get stuck waiting in a long line, follow instructions. Switching lines or allowing different lines to intersect will only make the process take longer. Just be a little patient until it is your turn.

Even though the crowds aren’t fun, don’t use that as a reason to not vote! It’s an important right as an American to have a voice in who is elected. So get out to the polls and cast your vote next week!

Crowd Control Options

We talk about crowd control a lot on this blog, but we don’t often feature our own crowd control items, and how they all fit together to fit your needs. So this time, let’s go over exactly what it is we sell here at DirectCrowdControl.com, and how you can buy the different components to customize your crowd control experience.

Tape Posts

 Tape posts are a great, economic method of crowd control. Tape posts are easy to move, adjust, and more. Great for events and retail alike, you simply can’t go wrong with a tape post. We have many options to choose from. Go for a more budget friendly tape post, or go formal with something like our formal colonial posts to add some flair to your event.

Rope Posts

 Rope posts are a classic, and often more elegant, form of crowd control. From our selection you can find everything from colonial rope posts to more industrial styled rope posts. No matter what type of crowd control you need, we have the tools to help you do it. We even have a category specifically for those of you on a budget. 

Ropes

 Having rope posts without the ropes will do you no good with crowd control! We have many different styles depending on the type of look you want your retail establishment, business, or event to have. Choose one of our cheaper options, or go for glamour with your upcoming formal events. 

Signage & Accessories

So many mistakes in crowd control come from a lack of signage. For example, if you are holding two events at the same time in one building, most awkward situations can be avoided with correctly placed signage. Use it to indicate that one particular room is for a science fiction convention, so that wedding guests do not accidentally enter the wrong space. A simple sign saves a lot of confusion, time, and staff energy.

As you can see, there are many different methods and looks when it comes to managing your crowds. Go to our site to browse our full selection, today!

Beat the Crowds this Summer

Vacation season is vacation season for a reason. Temperatures and the weather around the country are generally better. Children are no longer in school, making it simpler to take the entire family on a trip. There’s plenty of reasons to go out of town during summer, but it presents many challenges. The biggest of these challenges is often the crowds.

But how do you avoid the crowds? There’s nothing that can be done to stop the crowds, but there are ways to avoid the bulk of them if you try. Not only will this make your vacation easier, but it will act as crowd control in itself by helping to disperse the flow of people. Continue reading to see our tips for managing the crowds while you’re enjoying vacation.

• While all of summer is busy for vacations, June is usually the least busy. Many schools are in session through part of June, making July and August a more popular option. If you can make it work, June is your best option.

•    If you can avoid travel during holidays, do so at all costs. Summer holidays are satiated with vacation goers. Memorial Day weekend, Fourth of July, and Labor Day weekend are all very popular with travel. Avoid these days if possible.

• The time of day you go is very important. Places such as amusement parks tend to get more crowded in the early afternoon. Don’t sleep in. Get up early and head out right at open for the attractions you want to see. You’ll have shorter wait times and less crowds.

•   Try to vacation on weekdays. Weekends are busier because locals get out and do things as well as tourists. While that doesn’t mean it’s not crowded on weekdays, it will be easier to navigate the crowds.

•  Pick less popular destinations. Everyone heads to Disney World in summer. There’s tons of other vacation spots, especially if you’ve done a vacation spot once before. Do some research and find areas that are less crowded, but just as amazing.

•   If you can’t beat the crowds, embrace them! Go into vacation expecting the crowds. Plan extra time for your activities. If you go in knowing there will be crowds and try to keep a positive attitude, it might make the experience better. Just remember you’re all there to enjoy a vacation!

Those are our tips for beating the crowds, or at least accepting them. There’s no good way to avoid them unless you plan to travel in the off season. Enjoy the rest of your summer, crowds and all.

Comic Con and Crowd Control

San Diego Comic Con has become a nearly impossible event to attend. The comic book and pop culture event puts a cap on attendees of 130,000. Tickets for Comic Con 2014 sold out in approximately two hours.

With this many attendees and this high of a demand, crowd control is important. Attendees, volunteers, and guests all need to be kept safe, and this can be a challenge with so many people in one area. This challenge has been met in many ways, such as capping attendance, managing traffic movement, having lottery systems, and more.

Event organizers should take a good look at how Comic Con manages crowd control. While the organizers are far from perfect, their methods work fairly well considering the scale of the crowd. Certain corridors are transformed into one-way walkways to make pedestrian traffic more manageable. Comic Con also has events in more than just the convention center. Utilizing multiple venues can help diffuse crowds.

But there’s only so many volunteers and officers to police the crowds. One of the largest complaints with Comic Con itself is the lines for panels. Specifically, lines for the large panels. Getting into Hall H is considered something of a miracle, and it’s almost necessary to camp out overnight to get a spot in the hall.

However, Comic Con does have some strict rules when it comes to lining up for panels to help with crowd control. If you are an attendee planning to try for Hall H, take a look at our tips below. This will not only help the staff trying to keep the event running smoothly, but it will also ensure that you won’t be removed from the line or have your badge revoked.

Comic Con Tips

~ Line up Early. If you want a chance of getting into one of the larger rooms like Hall H, plan to be there at least four hours early….but really it should be more. Some people line up before midnight the night before, and while that’s not necessary it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the line overnight. 

~ Camping is not allowed in line. This means no tents, cots, heaters, large fans, open flames, and more. Do not bring these items as they take up a large amount of space and you will likely be removed from the line.

~ Do not save space for friends to join you in line. The attendees around you may report you to a line monitor, and you will all be removed. That’s not to say you cannot take breaks if you are waiting in line. Have your group arrive together and take turns having food and bathroom breaks.

~ While camping is not allowed, some items are. A “normal sized” chair, blankets, and sleeping bags are all allowed as long as it only takes up the space of one person.

~ If you plan on staying in line overnight, keep it down. You will be waiting in a public area and making a large amount of noise, dancing outside of the line, and running around creates traffic issues and unnecessary noise.

~ Respect the grounds and do not leave garbage and belongings behind. 

~ Be polite to those around you. It is understandable that tempers may flare while waiting in line and surrounded by people, but starting arguments will only cause more problems. Don’t make another problem where there doesn’t need to be one.

~If you don’t get into the panel you want, don’t throw a fit. With as many attendees as there are, it is simply not possible. Go out and enjoy other parts of the convention. Not everyone makes it into Hall H, but don’t let that ruin your experience.

Comic Con is not for the faint of heart. While the convention itself is organized as best as can be expected, the heavy crowds and packed schedules can be too much for some people. Know what to expect before you try for a ticket, and use common sense while attending the convention. This will make the experience better for everyone.