Bad Economy, Dangerous Holiday Shopping

Anything they learn, Smith said, could be used to help prevent another tragedy.

In a statement released late Monday, Hank Mullany, the president of Wal-Mart's northeast division, said the company would continue "to partner closely with Nassau County law enforcement officials as they conduct their investigation."

"Nothing is more important to us than providing a safe and secure shopping environment for our customers and associates," Mullany said.

Whether it's the holiday shopping season, McGoey and Witherspoon agreed that stores could be doing more on the security front. They said that security personnel -- whether they work directly for a retailer or are contracted from an outside company -- often receive minimal training.

The training they do get, Witherspoon said, is largely focused on shoplifting, not violence or even crowd control, because that's the most common security issue afflicting retailers.

Stores are also reluctant to invest money in security, Witherspoon said.

"Ultimately, what happens in most companies and in most stores, security and loss prevention [are] perceived as an expense," he said. "It's a drain on the bottom line and, therefore, store management and corporate management are always going to have better things to do with that money -- new promotions, new advertising, whatever the case may be."

LaRocca of the National Retail Federation said that, typically, retailers spend a little less than one-half of 1 percent of their annual sales on security personnel.

But, he said, since the terrorist attacks of 2001, security at stores has intensified. Most recently, the federation and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched a joint effort to help all businesses train employees on how to respond when a shooting takes place at their workplaces.

"Security has always been a top priority of retailers," he said. "This is something that we think about all of the time."

It's not, however, something retailers talk about all the time.

Several retailers declined requests by ABCNews.com to discuss their security practices.

"The more we talk about what we're doing, the more we help out the bad guy, so that's not a subject we address," said Jim Sluzewski, spokesman for Macy's Inc.

At least some store security precautions are fairly obvious, however, especially on Black Friday. Many big chains distribute special tickets to customers lined up early outside the stores; the tickets guarantee customers the opportunity to purchase certain, heavily discounted items before the stores actually open that day.