Walmart reported its best ever Black Friday with more millions of televisions, towels, and dolls sold during their special shopping hours.
This year the retailer opened earlier, beginning Black Friday deals at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
Walmart sold more than 1.8 million towels, 1.3 million televisions, 1.3 million dolls and 250,000 bicycles, according to its website.
“I’m so proud of what our more than 1.3 million associates have done to prepare and execute our Black Friday plans, giving our customers a great start to their Christmas shopping season,” said Bill Simon, Walmart U.S. president and chief executive officer. “The work of our associates is even more impressive when you consider they served approximately 22 million customers on Thursday.
Walmart’s Black Friday plan included three events this year at 8 p.m., 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. During the high traffic period from 8 p.m. through midnight, Walmart processed nearly 10 million register transactions and almost 5,000 items per second, the retailer said.
Hundreds of people took part in Black Friday demonstrations at Walmart stores nationwide, protesting what they say is the retailer’s retaliation against speaking out for better pay, fair schedules and affordable health care, CNN reports.
Only 26 protests occurred at stores overnight and many did not include Walmart associates, the company said Friday morning. The company also said it did not experience any walk-offs that were promised by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
“We estimate that less than 50 associates participated in the protest nationwide,” Simon said. “In fact, this year, roughly the same number of associates missed their scheduled shift as last year.”
According to organizers from the union-backed group OUR Walmart, workers and supporters rallied in Landover Hills, Md., Miami, Oakland, Calif., Chicago, Danville, Ky., Dallas and Kenosha, Wis., CNN reports.
