Target Black Friday Safety Plan Detailed: What Shoppers Can Expect

The pandemic will, as with everything else this year, have a major impact on the biggest retail shopping day of the year: Black Friday. Though shopping online to skip the crowds has become increasingly popular, many people still make plans to hit up physical retail stores, and that'll be a problem in places where social distancing mandates are still necessary. For its part, retailer Target has detailed the additional measures it will roll out to keep customers safe this holiday season.

Quite obviously, the safest way to shop this Black Friday is to stay home, warm up a cup of coffee, and browse sales on your favorite tablet or smartphone. Many companies, including the biggest retailers, will be offering Black Friday deals online and many of them will go live before the big day, giving customers a chance to nab items and have them shipped before the holiday rush starts.

If you do plan to venture out into the wilds, however, Target aims to reassure you that it will take many additional steps to help reduce one's risk of virus exposure at its stores. The company notes that it has rolled out dozens of these safety measures since the pandemic was declared in March; these new additions and 'enhancements' will build upon them.

Standing in line is obviously one of the biggest issues with shopping in a store — social distancing is difficult when a bunch of people are crammed together at the checkout terminals. To address this, Target says it will have more than 1,000 team members across its stores deploy MyCheckout devices so that customers can check out from anywhere within the stores.

In addition, users can head over to the Target.com/line website to see if their store has a line outside and to reserve a spot in it, eliminating the need to physically stand with a group of people in the cold. Those things aside, Target is also doubling its number of Drive Up spots to almost 8,000 across the US and eliminating the need to roll down your car window when picking up an order.

Target's full list of holiday safety measures can be found on its corporate website here.