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Long before it was cool — or controversial — to lure deal-hungry shoppers away from Thanksgiving dinner, Kmart was open on the holiday.

When other big-box stores began encroaching on its turf and opening Thursday night, Kmart responded by offering "doorbuster" sales even earlier — 6 a.m.

So Thursday, time-crunched bargain-hunters could buy a 7-foot pre-lit Christmas tree ($60), load up on $3 Barbie dolls and be home in time to brew coffee in a new $10 pot and set the turkey accompaniments to sizzling in a dual-basket deep fryer ($40).

Those prices lasted until just 5 p.m., when the staff of Kmart's Salt Lake City location put the finishing touches on the store's separate evening sale, which began at 7 p.m.

"We're hanging on," assistant manager Alice Troutman said Wednesday as the staff scrambled to prepare for the double-sale day. "It's been kind of hectic."

J.C. Penney didn't go in for crack-of-dawn hours on Thanksgiving, but its 3 p.m. opening was a few hours earlier than most stores. And customers at its West Valley City location seemed hungry for shopping — according to general manager Allison Kirk, there were more than 1,000 people waiting outside.

Kirk has been with the company for 37 years, though this was her first Thanksgiving at this location. It was "the craziest I've ever seen," she said, in terms of how many customers were in the store.

But it's "outstanding," she added, because that means business is going well.

When the doors opened, the store distributed coupons, Kirk said, and due to a "very passionate crowd" and some line crashers, workers had to call security for backup.

Pillows, bedding, towels, small electronics and boots seemed to be the most popular items, she said.

By 5:30 p.m., hundreds of people were in checkout lines snaking through the store, and hundreds of others were still browsing.

The registers won't close until 10 p.m. Friday, and the store has another round of coupon giveaways at 6 a.m. — an event Kirk anticipates will bring in another 600 or 700 people.

Nearby at Ulta Beauty, Tacie Robinson was the first in a line of more than 50 people to enter the store, which opened at 6 p.m. She arrived about 50 minutes before that.

"I can't really afford to buy a lot of the stuff that's usually here at regular price," she said. "I get to refill some of the things that I've been wanting to get for a while."

Robinson came prepared, she said, with a list on her phone of items she wanted to buy. She used her wait time to plan out the most effective route to take through the store. This was her one and only stop for Thanksgiving shopping, she said.

In Salt Lake City, Target also opened its doors at 6 p.m. Shoppers were all over the store, but the electronics section was the most densely packed.

On the other side of the store, checkout lines snaked in, out and around 15 aisles before reaching the registers.

Forty-five minutes after the store opened, Everick Knox, a worker in the electronics section, was still being bombarded with questions from shoppers in search of items that had already sold out.

Popular items, he said, like the $99.99 Nintendo 3DS, disappeared from the shelves less than a minute after the store opened.

"I'd say almost 30 seconds. People were scrambling for it. There were children there, too," Knox said, shaking his head.

Knox patiently continued answering questions from customers, but to The Tribune reporter, he offered a simple plea: "Please shop online."

Twitter: @mnoblenews