It's quiet inside Macy's gargantuan flagship store in Manhattan's Herald Square, a half hour before the doors are set to open for the much-hyped annual shopping frenzy known as Black Friday. 
 
 Of course, it's not actually Friday. It's Thursday night. It's still Thanksgiving. 
 
 No matter. Lines snake out from each of the store's many entrances, hugging its exterior walls and curling around the block. Shoppers huddle together in the 32-degree chill, largely outfitted in puffy black coats and scarves wrapped around their necks. A New York Police Department van sits nearby, a half-dozen officers watching over the scene with semi-automatic rifles in hand. The largest crowd lingers outside the main entrance on Broadway, corralled in barricades so they don't spill out too far into the square. TV crews scamper around, documenting the scene. 
 
 I stand alongside a throng of photographers, cameramen and reporters who have stationed themselves around what will become the point of peak hysteria. We're right on the front lines, wedged between the Michael Kors and Coach displays that immediately greet shoppers at the entrance. 
 
 We're warned by Macy's staff to stay out of the main walkway, which shoots right down the center of the first floor. "They won't stop," a store representative says of the shoppers waiting in the cold. We shuffle to the side. 
 
 At the Coach store, a supervisor ascends a small step stool and gives his workers last-minute instructions and a pep talk. "Can we do this?" he asks. "Yes!" They get in a circle and put their hands in the center. "One, two, three!" they shout. "Team Herald Square!" 
 
 Enter Macy's chief executive officer Terry Lundgren, dressed in a suit and tie, flanked by a group of suit-and-ties. He strides up to the main entrance to chat with his workers. Each year, he shows at the flagship on Black Friday to greet customers. With five minutes remaining before the doors open, he retreats to the main aisle, phone in hand, and starts typing vigorously. It's getting louder now. 
 
 "Okay, we're ready!" someone near the main entrance yells. 
 
 They count down from 10 and Lundgren looks up. Here they come. 
 
 "WOOOOOOOOOOOO!" come the screams as shoppers jockey for positions. First they must make it through the heavy outer doors, as security personnel loom over the scene, and then through a second logjam at the inner doors. Finally, they enter the media funnel, and brave photographers step into the flow of traffic, cameras flashing like strobes. Phones thrust in the air record the scene and the shoppers take in the attention, waving to reporters and howling all the way. 
 
 "First one! Yeah!" Lundgren shouts to the very first shopper who rushes by. She doesn't recognize him. None of the shoppers recognize him. He's just another face in the crowd. 
 
 The shoppers' demeanor shifts once they make it through the gauntlet. Some of them search for some directional guidance like brand signage or a store map, their eyes darting around, as they try to identify their first point of attack. Others know where they're going: the shoe floor, the suit racks, the cosmetics stations. 
 
 Michael Kors and Coach, right up front, fill up in a flash and the crowd begins to spread to every corner of the sales floor. A girl bolts by me, hand firmly grasped around her friend's wrist as she drags her toward Michael Kors, gaze fixated on a red tote. "Hurry up!" she squeals as her friend stumbles on the leg of a table. 
 
 The store's many other entrances have opened too. Queues begin to form at each of the escalators, with Macy's staff holding back shoppers to limit the weight. Down the main walkway, shoppers stand shoulder to shoulder, slowly shimmying toward anything that could save them from the madness surrounding them. 
 
 The once-gleaming displays of handbags are already in shambles -- $300 purses with their zippers open, strewn across tables. 
 
 After 10 minutes, Lundgren nods to his cohort and heads over to a side exit, his work apparently complete. His suits follow him out as he squeezes through the crowd. By the time he gets to the door, the entire first floor is packed to the brim. The holiday shopping rush has just begun. ||||| With an estimated 140 million Americans predicted to shop this weekend, retailers are bolstering security, deploying Segway patrols and putting on live music to distract shoppers and avoid the deal-hunting scrums that can foster Black Friday tramplings. 
 
 Malls are beefing up patrols with off-duty cops. Chains including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) are using quota systems for popular doorbusters from iPads to jewelry. Yet all was not peaceful. In one incident, uploaded to YouTube, uniformed security officers handcuffed a female shopper at an unidentified Wal-Mart store after a tussle over a television. Bill Simon, chief executive officer of Wal-Mart’s U.S. division, was asked about the incident on a conference call today with reporters. 
 
 “Any time you get more than 22 million people together you’re going to have some behavior you’re not proud of,” said Simon, who also said “the number of incidents” was down from last year and that it’s “hard to tell what happened in any individual incident.” 
 
 Related News: 
 
 The National Retail Federation issued crowd management guidelines, urging stores to prepare for flash mobs, long lines of angry customers and crowded washrooms. The Washington-based trade group has sent out the memo annually since a Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death in 2008 during a Black Friday melee. 
 
 Photographer: Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images Shoppers wait to pay for flat screen televisions at a Wal-mart in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles on Nov. 29, 2013. Close Shoppers wait to pay for flat screen televisions at a Wal-mart in the Crenshaw district... Read More Close Open Photographer: Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images Shoppers wait to pay for flat screen televisions at a Wal-mart in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles on Nov. 29, 2013. 
 
 Sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday will increase 2.2 percent to $40.5 billion, IBISWorld Inc. predicted. General merchandisers such as Wal-Mart, Target Corp. and Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) typically attract the biggest crowds. That’s because shoppers want to get everything at one place on a day when traffic and parking are challenging, said Rich Mellor, the NRF’s vice president of loss prevention. 
 
 ‘Rambunctious Shoppers’ 
 
 Shoppers are “anxious to be first,” he said. “They get really rambunctious coming in the door. You have to be informative so they’re not going crazy looking for whatever.” 
 
 Yesterday at a Wal-Mart in Garfield, New Jersey, police arrested a woman for spitting at another woman and hitting her child instead, Captain Darren Sucorowski said in a statement. A man screaming vulgarities in the same store also was arrested, Sucorowski said. 
 
 At a Wal-Mart store in Elkin, North Carolina, Brian Spain, an actor and filmmaker who lives in the Bronx, captured another fracas over a TV on his phone. Before the fight broke out, Spain, 33, was marveling at how peaceful everyone was. 
 
 Photographer: Joshua Lott/Getty Images Customers receive Wal-Mart sales circulars as they wait in line to enter the store on Thanksgiving day, Nov. 28, 2013 in Troy, Michigan. Close Customers receive Wal-Mart sales circulars as they wait in line to enter the store on... Read More Close Open Photographer: Joshua Lott/Getty Images Customers receive Wal-Mart sales circulars as they wait in line to enter the store on Thanksgiving day, Nov. 28, 2013 in Troy, Michigan. 
 
 “I told myself ‘it’s so calm,’” said Spain, who was visiting his family. “Everyone’s polite. It’s not the way it is in New York.” 
 
 Fight Video 
 
 Spain wanted to interview people about shopping on Thanksgiving -- which he opposes -- and posted the video online after Wal-Mart workers threatened to kick him out of the store or have him arrested for trespassing, he said. 
 
 Black Friday Blues 
 
 Stores ramped up security precautions earlier than ever this year because so many chains opened their doors on Thanksgiving Day. Nearly a quarter of shoppers, or 33 million people, intending to hit the stores this holiday weekend planned to shop yesterday, according to an NRF survey. 
 
 With more stores opening on Thanksgiving, malls have been seeing more guests who drank too much booze with their turkey, said Garth Gasse, director of retail operations and asset protection at the Retail Industry Leaders Association, an Arlington, Virginia, trade group. 
 
 “They’ve probably consumed a few and they probably shouldn’t be out shopping,” Gasse said. 
 
 Uneven Recovery 
 
 Even as retailers prepare for potential trouble during the annual shopathon, they’re piling on the discounts to persuade wary shoppers to spend. The uneven U.S. economic recovery, with its lackluster jobs growth, has undermined consumers’ confidence to make discretionary purchases. On Nov. 22, ShopperTrak, a Chicago-based researcher, reiterated a projection that holiday sales will advance 2.4 percent, the smallest rise since 2009. 
 
 Photographer: Joshua Lott/Getty Images Sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday will increase 2.2 percent to $40.5 billion, IBISWorld Inc. predicted. General merchandisers such as Wal-Mart, Target Corp. and Sears Holdings Corp. typically attract the biggest crowds. Close Sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday will increase 2.2 percent to $40.5... Read More Close Open Photographer: Joshua Lott/Getty Images Sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday will increase 2.2 percent to $40.5 billion, IBISWorld Inc. predicted. General merchandisers such as Wal-Mart, Target Corp. and Sears Holdings Corp. typically attract the biggest crowds. 
 
 Black Friday safety became a preoccupation for retailers after the Wal-Mart worker’s death five years ago at a store in Valley Stream, New York. 
 
 The Occupational Safety & Health Administration cited the company for “inadequate crowd management,” and in May, 2009, said the worker died of asphyxiation after he was knocked to the ground and trampled by a crowd of about 2,000 shoppers who surged into the store for a “Blitz Friday” sale. 
 
 Large Crowd 
 
 OSHA found that the store’s employees “were exposed to being crushed by the crowd due to the store’s failure to implement reasonable and effective crowd management principles.” Employees didn’t receive “the necessary training and tools to safely manage the large crowd of shoppers,” the administration found. 
 
 Wal-Mart was fined $7,000, the maximum penalty allowed under the law, OSHA said at the time. Wal-Mart denied any wrongdoing and has appealed the citation to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, an independent federal agency. The commission hasn’t issued a decision on the case. 
 
 In recent years, Wal-Mart worked with crowd management experts and devised plans to address how shoppers flow through and out of its stores, Randy Hargrove, a company spokesman, said in an e-mail. Last year, the chain began offering a One-Hour Guarantee that allows shoppers who are inside a store within one hour of a sales event to buy a given item and take it home that day or before Christmas, he said. 
 
 Wal-Mart Wristbands 
 
 This year, Wal-Mart distributed wristbands for its 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. special events on Thanksgiving Day. To prevent a rush, shoppers with wristbands were allowed return two hours after an event starts to pick up their purchases. 
 
 Best Buy Co. (BBY), which held dress rehearsals for its staff last week, has revived a Black Friday ticketing system, said Jeff Shelman, a spokesman. Staff members go to the waiting line well in advance of the doors opening and hand out tickets equal to the number of doorbuster items it is selling. Shoppers can ask for tickets for as many different doorbusters as they want, and can purchase a maximum of one of each category. They are given plenty of time to pick up their items. 
 
 “That prevents the need for a big rush to get to the pile of TVs or whatever the hot item is,” Shelman said. 
 
 At Target (TGT), security staff are riding Segways in the parking lots to increase their visibility, said Jessica Stevens, a spokeswoman. Hanging signs will direct shoppers to hot items spread throughout the store to ensure they’re plenty of room to shop, she said. 
 
 Off-Duty Cops 
 
 Taubman Centers Inc. (TCO)’s Dolphin Mall in Miami is upping to 24 from 22 the number of uniformed off-duty cops he is hiring to manage the crowd outside and at the entrances, said Pete Marrero, the general manager. 
 
 “They have conversations with the customers, they tell them we expect them to come in an orderly fashion when the doors open,” Marrero said. 
 
 Last year, Marrero opened an hour earlier than planned when he saw a mob swelling. 
 
 “I saw the crowds were getting bigger,” Marrero said. “We opened the doors early to avoid people trampling.” 
 
 To entertain waiting shoppers, Dolphin Mall will have live bands. Stores are offering “crowd comforts” such as portable toilets and water bottles to keep shoppers calm, Gasse said. 
 
 The local police department in Bloomington, Minnesota, location of Mall of America, one of the nation’s largest, puts extra officers on duty during peak holiday shopping hours, said Vic Poyer, a deputy chief. Today, about a dozen will direct traffic outside, paid for by the shopping center. 
 
 “The mall knows they’ve got to get people in and out,” he said. “If they have a bad experience, they won’t come back.” 
 
 To contact the reporters on this story: Cotten Timberlake in Washington at ctimberlake@bloomberg.net; Renee Dudley in New York at rdudley6@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Robin Ajello at rajello@bloomberg.net ||||| Black Friday is upon us, which means trouble's afoot across the nation. Overzealous shoppers will do anything for a deal, including lying, fighting, and dragging a police officer with a car. 
 
 We know Black Friday deals are a sham. We feel terrible for the souls forced to work retail on the holidays, cutting short their own Thanksgiving dinners so the masses may shop at earlier hours every year in pursuit of that one budget-busting deal. And yet, every year, we're greeted with more violence and chaos the morning after we come together as family. Aren't the holidays wonderful? 
 
 Two separate Walmart fight videos have emerged. The first, per Business Insider, takes place inside a Walmart in Elkin, North Carolina. A mob of people jostle for flat-screen TVs, when all of a sudden tensions rise and a small fight breaks out. One man puts down his TV to pick up and slam another man, who might have been attacking someone else. A woman screams "oh my God!" as this goes on. Security does little to nothing to stop the violence. 
 
 The uploader says he was thrown out for recording the video while the violent offenders he documented weren't approached by security. Pick your battles, indeed. 
 
 The other Walmart video's origin is unknown, but it's had some wide pick-up Friday morning. Again, the fight seemingly broke out over the same flat-screen TV deal. This time Walmart security worked to calm the throbbing mass around them, but did not succeed. Two girls start fighting over a television before police can break them up. One girl gets roughed up by security. 
 
 But the mayhem was hardly limited to Walmarts nationwide. In Chicago, a shoplifting scheme ended when a police officer was dragged by the getaway car the driver was shot in his shoulder. 
 
 Here's what happened, as reported by the Chicago Tribune: cops chased two people sprinting from a Kohl's with arm loads of stolen merchandise to a Pontiac Sunfire waiting nearby. In the ensuing scuffle one officer was somehow caught in the car and dragged as the criminals drove away. Another officer shot the driver in the shoulder, foiling their plan. Three people were arrested and no one was seriously injured. Everyone else went about their day: 
 
 Despite the shooting, shoppers were still browsing the aisles of the store where police had marked off a crime scene with orange cones out front. An unmarked police car was parked inside that boundary, behind a black Pontiac sedan with bullet holes visible in its rear driver’s-side window. Shoppers used their cell phones to snap pictures of the scene. 
 
 But back to Walmart for now! In Rialto, California, two people were taken into custody following a three-person brawl outside a Walmart over alleged line-cutting. People fighting on the grass behind this police officer in the video: 
 
 The photo above shows an absurdly huge crowd gathered at the Macy's in New York's Herald Square, the flagship store, early Friday morning. Black Friday truly is here to stay. If you see any other mayhem that should be included, feel free to put it in the comments or, better yet, email us. 
 
 If you need a palette cleanser, here, enjoy: 
 
 Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen -- like your two favorite crazy old uncles: pic.twitter.com/zwazOqGEf6 — Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) November 29, 2013 
 
 The holidays aren't all bad. ||||| It’s that time of year again: Black Friday. Millions of people gather at various retail stores to push and shove their way to a $98 TV set or a 50%-off iPad. 
 
 As usual, things got ugly in some places. So ugly that hashtags #Walmartfights and #Brawlmart had thousands of tags overnight. 
 
 
 
 One video went viral showing an unidentified Walmart full of shoppers swarming a discount item and fighting, shouting, and shoving to get out of the crowd. Police even swoop in to take down a shopper who got physical: 
 
 Another #Brawlmart tagged item showed a video of a Walmart in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. As the “This was a nice try at crowd control… but then,” one twitter user said, teasing a video showing a stampede-like crowd storming the doors: 
 
 #Brawlmart also spread to Fort Worth, Texas, where this video shows shoppers getting frighteningly rough reportedly over a DVD player, a Garmin GPS, and a variety of other items: 
 
 And in Rialto, Calif., a fight broke out over line-cutting in the parking lot of a Walmart before the store opened: 
 
 This fight on Vine might take the cake, however, as two women struggle for some unknown reason while a third gets involved by hitting someone with the tiniest object possible: 
 
 Meanwhile, in Bangladesh, workers reportedly set fire to a Walmart/Gap supply factory, not as some sort of “proletariat” revolution or anything, but in response to rumors that one of their own co-workers was shot and killed by police. 
 
 — — 
 
 >> Follow Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) on Twitter 
 
 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| According to a Walmart press release, Thanksgiving was a day of record-breaking sales, sales that were "bigger, better, faster, cheaper and safer than ever." 
 
 Safer, huh? Let's examine the video evidence. 
 
 The fight above is at a Walmart store in Elkin, N.C., captured by New York Filmmaker Brian Spain. According to Spain, "I immediately had an employee — I assume the manager since he was the one that kicked me out — tell me that I had to turn my camera off and leave the store or I would be arrested for trespassing." The strategy for keeping the stores safer, you see, involves banning people from filming unsafe situations. 
 
 This fight at an unidentified Walmart shows a battle for televisions that ends with handcuffs: 
 
 And in Texas, everything is bigger. Including fights over DVD players and Garmins in Ft. Worth. The display cases cave under the weight of the madness, but the woman with a "heart problem" who is getting pushed around by "motherfuckers" provides the best commentary of this year's Thanksgiving Walmart fight videos: 
 
 Also worth noting, pictures of ambulances at Wal Mart: 
 
 Somebody done got hurt in the Walmart! #stretcher pic.twitter.com/8PZJOMzBIR — Kara Honaker (@KaraMHonaker) November 29, 2013 
 
 And pictures of stretchers: 
 
 If you think any of this stopped shoppers, nope. The retailer did over 10 million cash register transactions between 6pm and 10pm Thursday alone. ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
– Ever since a Walmart worker was trampled to death five years ago on Black Friday, the chain has increased its efforts to ensure safe shopping. Now, a range of top retailers are trying everything from live music to off-duty police hires to prevent a recurrence of the tragedy. Among their strategies, via Bloomberg: Walmart last night handed out wristbands to shoppers for events starting at 6pm and 8pm. Those with the bands were allowed to come back two hours after the events began to pick up their goods. And last year, the company instituted a "One-Hour Guarantee": If you're in the store within an hour of a sales event starting, you'll be sure to get your item. Best Buy workers actually went through dress rehearsals for today. The chain is also offering ticketed shopping, which sees workers distribute individual tickets for every item available in doorbuster sales. Shoppers are allowed one ticket per category of item. "That prevents the need for a big rush to get to the pile of TVs or whatever the hot item is," says a rep. Target has security teams riding around the parking lot on Segways so they'll be noticed. Miami's Dolphin Mall has hired off-duty police to keep an eye on things. "They have conversations with the customers; they tell them we expect them to come in an orderly fashion when the doors open," says the general manager. There will also be live bands to keep the crowds entertained. Of course, that doesn't mean today is exactly an oasis of calm: Quite a few outlets are rounding up videos of Black Friday mayhem.