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Black Friday sales swept the nation over the long Thanksgiving weekend. Greenville’s local shops partook in the annual tradition, and community members left their warm homes to embark on this crowded adventure throughout the town. 

Greenville’s shopping hub, Walmart, was prepared and delighted for such a crowd. 

Richard Gilliland, Greenville Walmart’s head manager, said the doors opened at 6:00 a.m. with a crowd of around 100 people anxiously waiting to explore the store’s Black Friday deals. 

“It’s been busy ever since we opened,” Gilliland said. “This is close to pre-COVID Black Friday sales. We’ve sold so much that we’re having to bring more and more items back out here.”

Data from the National Retail Federation (NRF) shows that 182 million people were expected to shop between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday this year, marking 2023 the highest turnout of holiday shoppers since 2017. The NRF predicts holiday sales to be between $957.3 billion and $966.6 billion, which is an increase from the $929.5 billion in sales in 2022.

Dale Brown, one of Greenville Walmart’s managers, said that the Walmart aisles were completely packed with larger item bins that quickly disappeared by the early afternoon. 

“It’s been going non-stop since this morning, we’ve had a really good day,” Brown said. 

Gilliland said the Black Friday sales at Walmart were concentrated on electronics, apparel and home decor, and that the store’s online deliveries were very high. 

“Walmart’s sales went online a couple of days ago so most of our sales are online,” Gilliland said. “We’ve delivered around 500 online orders. There will be traffic the rest of the day and the deals will stay for the next couple of days.”

According to data from Adobe Analytics, American consumers spent a record $9.8 billion online on Black Friday, up 7.5% from last year. Cyber Monday data was not yet released at the time of publication, but was expected to drive a record of $12 billion in spending.