If there was ever a question as to the penetration of Harry Potter into the cultural fabric of the United States, it was answered Friday when Wal-Mart hosted 2,900 launch parties Friday night in anticipation of the  release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The release of the last in the seven-book series by J.K. Rowling hit the stores at 12:01 am on Friday, July 21 proved one thing certain, everyone wants a ride on the Hogwart’s Express. As reported in MSNBC,

“it’s not just booksellers that are rushing to take advantage of the phenomenon. Retailers ranging from grocers to drug stores also will be hawking copies”

I never thought of hanging out at a Wal-Mart at midnight (or any other time of day actually) as a cultural event, but the Harry Potter celebrations were not just limited to book sellers like Barnes & Noble and Borders.

The numbers are staggering, reaching 8.3 million books sold on the first day alone. As reported on CNNMoney.com

“Borders Group, Inc. (BGP) said it sold about 1.2 million copies worldwide on Day 1, the highest single-day sales of any title in its history. Borders, the second-largest U.S. book chain, said it sold 850,000 copies worldwide of the sixth book on its first day in 2005.

According to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT), in the first six hours on sale, the book was selling about twice as fast as the sixth did during its release.

Book store chains in Britain said "Deathly Hallows" looks set to become the fastest selling book ever.

"We've sold 100,000 copies in the first two hours across the business in the UK," said Fiona Allen of Waterstone's. "That has outstripped anything we've sold before." The WH Smith chain sold 15 books every second across Britain overnight, breaking the record set by the previous Potter instalment of 13 per second in 2005.

Online retailer Amazon.com (AMZN) said it had pre-sold 2.2 million copies of the book worldwide.”

"Deathly Hallows" has already shot to the No. 1 spot on Barnes and Noble's (BKS) Top 100 bestsellers of 2007, with pre-orders for the book hitting more than 1.4 million, the largest number of pre-orders for any book in the company's history.

 Photo credit to Martin Oeser