As the Christmas shopping season gets into full-swing, Black Friday was a day of protest for some in the Northwest.
As shoppers pushed carts back to their car piled with toys, clothing and electronics, about a dozen protesters held signs denouncing Walmart outside the store in Albany, Oregon.
One of them, Bart Bolger, blames the retail giant for keeping worker wages low, not just at Walmart but at other mass retailers.
"It's this race to the bottom, and they have really set the low watermark for all of these," he says. "And now the other big box stores are imitating their behavior to be able to keep up."
A union representing grocery workers says there were nearly 1,500 Black Friday protests at Walmarts nationwide -- and about a dozen locations in Washington and Oregon.
A manager at the Albany location declined comment. But the company issued a press release saying it expected more than 22 million Americans to shop at Walmart on Thanksgiving and Black Friday this year.
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