Wal-Mart Grades Its Thursday Shopping Event As 'Awesome'

The holiday shopping season officially began on Thursday with many retailers enticing customers with exclusive deals and door busters.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) self-proclaimed on Friday that it performed "awesome."

"Last night was awesome!," Wal-Mart's Senior Vice President of Merchandising Laura Phillips wrote in a blog post. "In a few short hours, we flipped from being the largest grocery store in town to the best gift shop on the block. Not only did we have millions of customers shopping our stores, but we're confident Walmart was the first stop of the night for most of them. "

Phillips stated that Thursday's shopping day was the company's second-highest online sales day of the year, topped only by last year's Cyber Monday.

Wal-Mart's Black Friday shopping event began at 6 a.m. and continues all weekend long with sales on TVs, wireless devices, jewelry, tires, Christmas décor and thousands of other items both in store and online.