By the numbers: The biggest shopping weekend of the year
Retailers are reporting stunning sales stats as Americans eagerly took advantage of Black Friday deals.
An eye-popping 137.4 million Americans are planning to or considering shopping during Thanksgiving weekend, according to a survey conducted by the NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics.
That's more than the roughly 134 million ballots cast in the election, according to an ongoing tally by Cook Political Report.
- Target said that it sold more than 3,200 TVs per minute in the first hour of store opening.
- Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren told CNBC that some 16,000 people piled into the company's Herald Square flagship store when it opened at 5 p.m. Thursday — roughly 1,000 more people than last year, when the store opened an hour later.
- Amazon said that customers ordered more than 100,000 toys within the first few hours of Black Friday.
But retailers were cashing in even before Black Friday officially started.
Wal-Mart said it sold 150 million pounds of turkey and ham this Thanksgiving. During the month of November, the big box retailer said it sold more than six pies per second. That's a lot of sweet potatoes.
Still, a survey from the National Retail Federation found that Black Friday is likely to remain the busiest shopping day of Thanksgiving weekend.
— CNBC's Krystina Gustafson contributed to this report.