Dozens of people lined up outside Snavely's Garden Corner on Leitersburg Pike on Friday, waiting for the doors to open at 9 a.m.
Only 50 people at a time could come inside the store. The rest had to stand in the cold until other earlybird shoppers left.
Things were crazy for the first hour, as people shopped for Christmas items marked down from 25 percent to 66 percent, said employee Kevin Ledden.
Eventually, the crowds thinned, but business was brisk all day, he said.
Shoppers, it seemed, weren't too burned out from the holiday rush to head back into the fray on Friday in search of post-Christmas sales.
At Target in Halfway, shoppers flocked to the back corner of the store to pick over the remaining holiday decorations, cards and wrapping paper.
Tim and Margory Smith of Hancock pushed a red shopping cart full of lights, bulbs and other holiday decorations.
"We just enjoy getting out, looking for some bargains. Always looking for something different," she said.
The Smiths brought their 15-year-old daughter Erin and niece Codi Robair.
Monica McKenna, 21, of Winchester, Va., was at Target to find Christmas decorations for her new house.
Her future sister-in-law and future mother-in-law were there to help.
"We've already bought out Michaels, so don't even go there," she said.
Justin Hopkins, 25, of Wolfsville, stopped in one Christmas aisle to shake a jingle bell wreath for his little boy's amusement.
He said he was only there to please his wife, Jennifer Hopkins, 22.
"You don't want to know what I think of it. It's craziness," he said.
"He's a good guy," Jennifer Hopkins added.
Sylvia Alsip of Maugansville, went to Valley Mall to exchange a pin that her husband, Lawrence, had bought for her.
Since she doesn't wear pins, she exchanged it for a bracelet.
"I couldn't come up with anything she wanted," he said.
After that, the couple planned to take it easy and see a movie.
Valley Mall's computerized camera system counted 38,600 shoppers by 4 p.m., said Marketing Director Julie Rohm.
"This is definitely a huge day for us. We were told the sales are so great this year we should surpass last year with no trouble," she said.
But not everyone at the mall was in the shopping mood.
Sisters Betty Seavolt, 49, and Sherry Reynolds, 46, both of Hancock, were sitting in the mall's Food Court.
"We're not shopping. We're here to see a movie. We were smart," Seavolt said. The two planned to see "Cheaper by the Dozen."
