(By Balaseshan) Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) announced that Walmart U.S. had its "best ever" Black Friday events, saying it sold 1.8 million towels, 1.3 million televisions, 1.3 million dolls and 250,000 bicycles since 8 pm.
Walmart's Black Friday plan included three events this year at 8 pm, 10 pm and 5 am. During the high traffic period from 8 pm through midnight, Walmart processed nearly 10 million register transactions and almost 5,000 items per second.
"We had very safe and successful Black Friday events at our stores across the country and heard overwhelmingly positive feedback from our customers. 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.
In response to the UFCW's planned protests, Simon added, "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.
The company said Black Friday is just the start to a full holiday season of savings at Walmart.
WMT is trading up 1.70% at $70.06 on Friday. The stock has been trading between $56.32 and $77.60 for the past 52 weeks.