Walmart Rides the Tablet High on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is sliding into the sinkhole that is Black Friday and there’s nothing we can do. Before long, it’ll be swallowed up entirely, and shopping will be just as big a part of Thursday as eating turkey and watching football. One of the companies at the forefront of Black Thanksgiving is Walmart, which took a lot of flack online for opening its stores on Thanksgiving Day.

In spite of the online protest, the company didn’t back down. As a result, its workers were forced to leave their families to come in and appease the bargain-hunting whims of those who, for some reason, wanted to be there. And, oh my, did the shoppers turn out — Walmart posted in its website’s news section yesterday that it had broke several Black Friday records, and this was before the actual Black Friday had really started.

Electronics were highly sought-after items, with Walmart boasting that it had sold 2 million televisions and 1.4 million tablets. Walmart carries the iPad Air, iPad mini with Retina and iPad 2, and the numbers Walmart put up in the tablet category not only speak to how big a tablet destination Walmart has become, but also how far the tablet product category has come. Coming anywhere close to TV sales is a feat, and they’re doing it in 2013. It’s hard to believe that, pre-iPad, tablet sales weren’t even worth talking about.

Black Friday has come and gone, but many stores are still offering deals and this coming Monday is, of course, “Cyber Monday.” This means more deals are on the way, and Walmart has even gone so far as to offer an entire “Cyber Week” full of deals. At least they won’t be intruding on any other holidays, right?