ALEXANDRIA, Va. - While the National Retail Federation predicts a slight drop in holiday sales this year, it forecasts a surge of Black Friday shoppers.
With that in mind, the three Ss will be key: safety, shoppers and sales.

Somewhere between midnight and 3 a.m., you'll start to see lines forming outside malls and big box retailers across the country.

Excitement will be in the air, but so will safety this year. The federal government has warned stores take precautions and for the first time ever, the National Retail Federation put out Black Friday safety guidelines for all retailers

Hoping to avoid the deadly surge of Black Friday door-buster deal seekers at this Long Island Walmart that killed a store employee, look for more security this year.

Expect sale items to be scattered throughout the store, snaking lines --like those at airport checkpoints -- inside and out, and many Walmarts will stay open 24 hours starting on Thanksgiving Day.

So when the door-busters start at 5 a.m., people will already be in the store.

"The biggest thing is training the associates, making sure they are prepared for the amount of crowd thats going to be coming in our building," said Gerald Hollis, Best Buy's customer solutions manager.

Best Buy has a reputation for handling crowds well. Salespeople hand out tickets guaranteeing the purchase of those in-demand items.

"We slow it down, control the line, we don't want the door buster mentality, bum rush it, run in the store," Hollis said.

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Crowd control will be key, because a National Retail Federation survey predicts 134 million Americans will hit the stores Thanksgiving weekend, 6 million more than last year.

Zsatique Ferrell is even doing some early Black Friday recon.

"I plan on being out about 3:30 a.m., waiting in lines and seeing what deals I can I get," Ferrell said.

Gregory Robinson said this could be his first Black Friday experience.

"I might actually do it this year because there are a lot of sales out there that i'm actually interested in," he said.

Recent surveys show shoppers will be heading to stores offering the best deals, and there are plenty.

In electronics, Target is offering a limited number of 32" Westinghouse LCD TVs for $246, Walmart has a laptop for under $200, and DVDs are selling for as low as $3.99

Toys are also huge sellers. Barbie Dolls are expected to top girls' wish lists. We found them for as low as $6.  Boys are all about video games. We found some for about $10.

One difference you'll see this year: some retailers will be open very early. In addition to Walmart's new hours, Toys "R" Us is starting door busters at midnight, some stores are starting their sales on Thanksgiving Day.

The Poynter Institute has a list of helpful links, CLICK HERE.

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