How to Prepare for Black Friday: A Facility Leader’s Guide to Getting Stores Holiday Ready

The weather’s still scorching, and your team’s battling HVAC units. Yet, if you’re only now figuring out how to prepare for Black Friday, you’re already behind. Last year, 81.7 million people shopped in-store on Black Friday, and all signs point to even more in a few months from now.

And every single one of them will expect your facilities to function perfectly and look pristine.

That’s why it’s so perplexing that most facility leaders treat Black Friday prep like it’s some November problem. Right now, the vendors you’ll desperately need are already getting booked, as parts prices climb, and minor issues that start creeping up begin snowballing into major ones.  

The facilities that customers rave about — or rage about — get decided in August, not November.

So let’s talk about real strategy. Not the kind you’d present to corporate, but the nitty-gritty stuff that will save you in crunch time. Black Friday success happens in the boring details you handle now.

Pre-Event Maintenance Checks

Step one is your facility maintenance checks — the boring stuff that’ll haunt you if you ignore it.

First, your HVAC system doesn’t care that it’s still 90 degrees outside. Come November, it’ll be working overtime, and every contractor in a 50-mile radius will be booked solid with emergency calls. Schedule those tune-ups now. Replace filters, test your backup generators, and make sure your electrical system can handle those extra holiday displays running 18 hours a day.  

Now’s also the time for that deep clean and those nagging repairs you’ve been putting off. Touch up the paint on those scuffed walls, fix broken tiles, replace every burnt-out bulb. Handle everything before your stores get crammed with holiday displays and you can’t move a ladder without knocking over a Christmas tree. Your restrooms, especially, are about to face their Super Bowl. One backed-up toilet creates a domino effect of complaints and lost sales, so fix those slow drains and wonky faucets now.

Don’t forget winter’s coming too. Slip-and-fall accidents cost businesses $34 billion annually, and one icy patch in your parking lot could blow your entire maintenance budget. Lock in snow removal contracts today — not when the first storm hits

Lighting and Signage Updates

You’ve fixed the toilets and scheduled HVAC maintenance — great. But how to prepare for Black Friday also means making sure customers can see your merchandise. Sounds obvious until you’re walking through your store and realize half the fitting room bulbs are dead and your parking lot looks like a horror movie.

Start inside: Every burnt bulb is a dark corner where products disappear and shoppers feel sketchy. Replace them all — sales floor, stockrooms, even that one nobody notices until it’s the only light out. With winter’s 4:30 p.m. sunsets, your exterior lighting is also very important. Those parking lot lights you’ve ignored all summer are now the difference between customers feeling safe or driving to your competitor’s well-lit store.

Check your outdoor signage too. Nothing screams “we don’t have our act together” like a store sign with half the letters dark. Same goes for your holiday decorations — test everything before installing, use actual electricians for the complex stuff, and make sure your festive window display doesn’t violate fire codes. 

Your windows are free billboards during Black Friday. So, treat them that way. Clean them, light them properly, and watch foot traffic increase.

Last-Minute Repair Planning

Now that you’ve replaced every bulb and your store’s glowing like Times Square, it’s time to prepare for “what if?”

Do yourself a favor: Walk every store now looking for ticking time bombs. That refrigerator case making weird noises? The door that sticks? Fix them today, not when you’ve got lines around the building. Create your hit list of sketchy equipment and knock it out before November.

More importantly, nail down your emergency protocols. Your store managers need speed dial numbers tattooed on their brains — who to call when pipes burst, power fails, or the front door won’t unlock. Get your vendors on standby with 24/7 availability, not the “we’ll try to get there” kind. During Black Friday, waiting two days for repairs is not an option.

Have backup plans for everything. Portable heaters if HVAC fails. Generators for power outages. And most importantly, pause all nonurgent work from Thanksgiving through New Year’s. That means no renovations, no upgrades, and nothing that puts contractors in the customers’ way.

Scheduling Proactive Services to Avoid Disruptions

Now comes the tricky part: Timing all this work properly requires smart scheduling.

Book your maintenance crews for early Q3, when stores are quieter and contractors aren’t on 50 emergency calls. Trust us, the vendor that quotes you a reasonable price in August will charge triple (if they even answer) come November. Plus, your sales team will appreciate you getting noisy repairs done before they’re trying to close deals.

The facilities leaders who nail Black Friday? They’ve got maintenance windows mapped out like military operations. HVAC servicing in September. Deep cleaning in early October. Final walkthroughs before Halloween. They’re not panicking for emergency repairs at premium rates while customers wait in checkout lines.

One more thing: Lock in backup vendor contracts now. Because when something inevitably breaks at 8 p.m. on Black Friday, you need someone who’ll show up — not a voicemail saying they’re booked through New Year’s.

How BrandPoint Services Keeps Retail Running When It Matters Most

You’ve mapped out your maintenance schedule and locked in your repairs. But who’s going to execute all this when every contractor in America is booked solid? At BrandPoint Services, we’ve handled Black Friday prep for retail facilities teams for more than 20 years — long enough to know that how to prepare for Black Friday comes down to having the right partner on speed dial.

• 24/7 Emergency Response: Our emergency crews run 24/7/365. When your main entrance door gives up at 6 a.m. on Black Friday, we’re already dispatching technicians. You get a real person who answers and sends help immediately — because voicemail isn’t a strategy when customers are waiting.
• 3 A.M. Repairs Without the Drama: Store closes at midnight? We’ll show up at 2 a.m. to refinish floors, swap out lighting, or tackle that HVAC unit that’s been making weird noises. Our teams work around your extended holiday hours because we know “closed for maintenance” might as well say “giving money to competitors.”
• One Number for 500 Stores: Whether your locations are in Manhattan or Kansas, we’ve got prequalified techs who know your standards. Our nationwide network means you’re not explaining brand requirements to random contractors or crossing your fingers that someone decent shows up.
• Retail Veterans Who Get It: We’ve lived through every Black Friday nightmare — burst pipes during doorbusters, HVAC failures when stores hit triple occupancy, you name it. Our team thinks like facilities managers because most of us were facilities managers. We know why that door sensor matters when 200 people are pushing through.
• Everything From Toilets to Total Remodels: Managing 12 different vendors during the holidays is exactly what you don’t need. We handle it all — plumbing, electrical, HVAC, cleaning, signs, renovations — through one point of contact. When something breaks at peak hour, you make one call to someone who knows your account, not 15 calls to different contractors. 

Your Move: Fix It Now or Explain It Later

So here’s where you stand: Either you’re the facilities leader who started Black Friday prep in August, or you’re about to find out which of your HVAC units holds grudges. You know what separates the facilities teams still employed in January from those updating their LinkedIn profiles? The grunt work we just covered — the maintenance nobody notices until it fails spectacularly. That flickering light you’ve been ignoring. The bathroom door that sticks. And so on.

In all our years of doing what we do at BrandPoint Services, we’ve watched enough Black Friday disasters to write a horror movie (or comedy). We’re the ones facilities managers call when they’re in a pinch, when that weird smell in aisle seven becomes an actual problem, when the parking lot lights go dark during the 6 p.m. rush. Our teams handle your preventive maintenance in September, your emergency disasters in December, and everything in between — across every store you’ve got, from that flagship everyone visits to that location corporate forgot exists. 

Contact BrandPoint Services today, and get a jump on your Black Friday prep now.