Bargains bring out crowds

Hundreds of holiday shoppers braved cold temperatures and a heavy rain, some all night long, waiting for Utah retailers to open their doors early Friday morning.

Qiyu Zheng of West Jordan began standing in line at 9 p.m. Thursday at the Best Buy electronics store at 261 W. 2100 South, waiting for the chance to purchase a $500 laptop computer that regularly sells for $900.

By 5 a.m., Best Buy's parking lot was full, and a line of more than 1,000 people had wrapped its way around the building, heading south on 300 West.

Other local stores saw similar lines and bulging parking lots as they prepared to welcome hordes of bargain-seekers. ShopKo stores opened at 5 a.m. and offered shoppers free coffee and cookies, and Mervyn's had a 5:30 a.m. opening, offering a free Santa ornament for its first 700 guests.

Target stores set a 6 a.m. opening, as did Toys R Us, which was pushing everything from video games to My Little Pony toys.

Elyssa Rognon of Bountiful took her place in line at Best Buy at 11 p.m. Thursday. For Rognon, the day-after-Thanksgiving rush is an annual ritual. This year she came with her boyfriend. Together, the couple waited to purchase CDs selling for $6.99.

"We parked our van right up on the sidewalk, and we sat in there for like four hours," Rognon said. "We watched TV all night and played Monopoly."

Others, like Jacob Stokes of Centerville, pitched a tent.

"It was a lot warmer than out here," Stokes said. "Didn't get much sleeping. It rained quite a bit."

Jeff Havemann, sales manager for Best Buy, said doorbusters such as computers selling for $200 and digital cameras at $150 brought out the crowds.

"We've been preparing since July," Havemann said. "We're expecting at least a 7 to 8 percent increase in sales. We still get customers coming into our store for the first time."

By 6 a.m., the store's 75 employees were in position, ready for the charge. A steady stream of shoppers entered the building for nearly 15 minutes. Moments later, a new line formed, this time winding its way to the check-out registers.

Brian Tervort of Magna and Jeremy Davis of Kearns were the first to make their purchases, each buying MP3 players selling for $30 each.

"We stayed up all night," Davis said. "It was way worth it."