The marketing logo for the mall's "Rockin' Shoppin' Eve" was a coffee cup, a reminder of the free java and hot cocoa available to all.

Trendy shops like Aeropostale, which held a 50 percent-off-everything sale, were quickly jammed by 12:10 a.m. Cedar City resident Laura Lewis, there with her 9-week-old son and other family members, escaped that store with a few bargains in the bag.

Express soon limited entry into its store by telling people to wait outside until enough customers finished shopping inside. That store gave away free hats and handbags.

Shane Ward was bombarded at the mall's customer service desk, where he and others handed out 800 free DVDs, which included multiple copies of the 1971 James Garner flick "A Man Called Sledge" and the 1974 "California Split," a movie about gambling that starred George Segal and Elliott Gould.

With giveaways and deals at over 100 shops (the mall's four anchors were not open), long lines formed outside stores such as Vanity, where one woman said she was waiting for a free gift, although she had no idea what it was. By 1 a.m., multitudes still inched and shuffled their way through the mall.

Just how many were there? "Thousands and thousands, that's all I can say," DeMilt said.

Early-bird sales

As people in pajamas and teens on cell phones mixed it up in the mall, up the road at a Best Buy, the parking lot was filling up at 1:10 a.m., and shoppers literally camped out for the best deals.

Park City's Tanger Outlet Center had stores opening at 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. to offer "door-buster" promotions such as 10 percent off purchases of $150 or more until 10 a.m. at Calvin Klein and 15 percent off at Anne Taylor.

Macy's at the ZCMI Center in downtown Salt Lake City was open at 6 a.m., to the tune of about 50 shoppers. By 8 a.m., an employee said traffic in the store was on par with last year's pace. That mall is slated for demolition to make way for a 20-acre, $1.5 billion redevelopment project, but will remain open during the holidays.

At Circuit City in Salt Lake City, 15-year-old Mike Abernethy Jr. was the first in line at 1 p.m. Thursday for the store's 5 a.m. opening. Last year at this time, he was after the same thing, a sale on a computer, but he took his place in line at 1 a.m.

"And we didn't get anything," Abernethy said at 4:30 a.m.

About 1,000 people stormed Circuit City's front doors, in search of one- and two-gigabyte memory cards for $15 and $30, $99 laptop computers, cheap televisions and freebies.

"It's going to be a huge day today," store manager Delores Baker cheered to her staff of 45, which would grow to 65 by 11 a.m. A normal Friday staff requires about 12 employees.

With most seemingly oblivious to the store's decorations and holiday music, Baker declined to talk much about whether any meaning of Christmas was present inside Circuit City.

"Christmas is something different to everybody," she said.

As Mike Abernethy left the store, holding boxes that included his computer, free printer and free digital camera (with purchases over $249), there was no question how he was feeling.

"I'm happy," he said. "I got all the free stuff."

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com