If I was the manager of a place like wal-mart, I would consider moving all the big sales to the NEXT friday. That way you get all the people the couldn't find what they needed on BF, and the ones that didn't feel like dealing with the huge crowds.
The problem with that is Black Friday is the day after a major holiday; a day when people can get away with shopping at Walmart as an excuse for coming in late to work. The next Friday, is not that traditional shopper's day and would take a degree of social engineering to turn it into one.
The retailers aren't going to give up their big day, and frankly should not. Aside from the problem being with the store where it happened, and not the day itself, the executives in corporate with major retailers, who are truly soulless people, will write it off along the lines of 'too bad he didn't have better reflexes, oh well'.
People have been trampled in retail rushes before. Injuries have come about due to that, but this is the first time a death has resulted.
It seems to speak in volume of something could have been done at the store in question to have prevented this, but was not. A manager should have unlocked those doors rather than their cowardly ass sending a low-level employee to do it.
No competent manager, having known the size of that line, should have sent anybody to unlock the doors without first implementing crowd control. This was not the Chicago riots; 2000 people are not that difficult to control, if you implement control procedures, and they did not.
The manager of that store should be fired, without the option to resign.