Walkouts and protests, notwithstanding, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) said that today’s Black Friday shopping numbers are the retailer’s “best ever.” From 8:00 p.m. through midnight last night, Walmart said it had processed nearly 10 million cash register transactions involving nearly 5,000 items per second.

The retailer said this morning that since last night the company’s 4,591 U.S. locations have sold more than 1.8 million towels, 1.3 million TVs, 1.3 million dolls, and 250,000 bicycles.

Referring to the walkouts and protests, the company’s president of U.S. stores said:

Only 26 protests occurred at stores last night and many of them did not include any Walmart associates. 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.

Organizers of the walkout said earlier this morning that they expected more than 100 demonstrations today against Walmart’s employment practices.

Paul Ausick