Walmart U.S. reports ‘best-ever Black Friday events’

Bentonville, Ark. -- Walmart U.S. reported Saturday that its Black Friday events were its “best ever,” and followed on the heels of what U.S. president and CEO Bill Simon described as an “impressive Thursday,” on which 22 million customers shopped U.S. Walmart stores.



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, according to the retailer.



During the 8 p.m. event, customers were focused on gaming consoles, video games, DVDs, Furbys, fashion dolls, board games and Crock-Pots.



At 10 p.m. it was all about electronics, including big-screen TVs, tablets, laptops and digital cameras.



In response to the UFCW’s planned protests, Simon said, “Only 26 protests occurred at stores last night and many of them did not include any Walmart associates.” In addition, the company did not experience the walk-offs that were promised by the UFCW. “We estimate that less than 50 associates participated in the protest nationwide. In fact, this year, roughly the same number of associates missed their scheduled shift as last year,” Simon said.