Today’s was Beverly’s first ever store wide customer appreciation sale. Everything in the store was 40% off from 5-9 pm. One brave individual showed up at 3pm to be the first person in the store. By 4:30 there were about 100 people lined up to get inside. Store staff were busy making the store ready for the mob of mostly woman. To keep them happy they were passing out cake and cookies to the growing crowd. Once the doors were open, people filed in rather orderly. The scrapbooking isle was quickly cleared as well as the strands of beads. By 6pm, the checkout line had ballooned to over an hour long and stayed that way all night long.

Store management did a nice job of trying to plan for the crowds. They planned a little game of numbers on the floor. They would call out to everyone to get on and number and everyone would scramble. If they called your number, you got to pick a prize. This certainly helped bide the time while standing in line.

I don’t think they had any idea how many people would show up for 40% their entire purchase.