Today also marks the Black Friday protests against Walmart, with employees and supporters scheduled to begin demonstrations at 1,500 Walmart stores across the country. Workers are seeking an end to retaliation for organizing activities, more full-time positions, and a commitment from Walmart to pay a minimum of $25,000 for a full-time worker. In its press release this morning, Walmart said it was paying $70 million in holiday pay to employees who worked Thanksgiving Day and will give those same employees a 25% discount on an entire purchase made at the store on December 5th and 6th.
Online shopping and sales also saw a jump on Thanksgiving Day this year. According to International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), online sales rose more than 11.5% on Thanksgiving Day. Mobile traffic accounted for 38% of all online traffic, up more than 31% year-over-year. Mobile sales totaled 23.6% of all online sales for the day. The data was current as of 9:00 p.m. ET last night.
And how did football do? There were three televised NFL games on Thanksgiving: the traditional Detroit v. Green Bay game in the early afternoon; a Dallas v. Oakland game in the late afternoon; and Baltimore v. Pittsburgh in the evening. No ratings data is available for these games yet, but so far this year, 15 NFL games have drawn more than 25 million viewers and the NFL has nabbed the honors for 24 of the top 25 most-watched programs since Labor Day.
The NFL has a lock on TV ratings, but even if 75 million people watched the three games that were broadcast yesterday, the number represents little more than half the 140 million people who will be shopping in brick-and-mortar stores over the Black Friday weekend according to the National Retail Federation. And with online shopping and sales soaring, it’s game over.
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