Excited shoppers bundled up in the cold and dark outside the Carrollton Kmart store at 5:30 Friday morning, with the line stretching through the parking lot as they waited for the doors to open at 6 a.m.

For some it was the first stop on Black Friday, but for others it was the culmination of a busy morning of day-after-Thanksgiving shopping. The mood was good as shoppers joked back and forth and waited with family and friends.

This was Carrollton resident Dale Driver’s second stop of the morning. He was alone, but was in radio contact with his wife who was shopping across town, he said, pulling out his phone.

“I’ve already hit Walmart,” Driver said. “Our family is divided up. My wife and two daughters are across town. I’m here and we’ve got five different places we’re going.”

As with so many families, the Drivers are trying to stretch their Christmas dollars this year with the annual after-Thanksgiving super sales.

“It’s not necessarily big items,” Driver said. “Matter of fact, we’re not getting any big items, just very small items. So, just trying to make it have several things for Christmas rather than one big thing.”

Rhonda Pillow, the first person in line, said she arrived at 4 a.m. with her mother, sister, husband and four kids, hoping to snatch up a bargain notebook computer and a Nintendo DSI. She came prepared with her insulated mug and gloves, her purse already resting in a cart right pushed up against the door.

“I have four children, so I need all the sale prices I can get,” Pillow said. “My husband’s sitting in the car with the four kids.”

The early bird at the store was Sylvia Logan, who arrived at 1 a.m. to get the bargain-priced Nintendo DSI, waiting in her car until other people started arriving. The deal at Kmart was the best, she said, with five free games and a gift certificate with the purchase, but there was a limited number to be had.

“I came here yesterday, and the lady in the store told me if I didn’t get here before 2, I wouldn’t get anything,” Logan said. “I’m just here for one thing, too. So, I’ll just be in and out.”

She was in and out. Just before the store opened, manager Kelly Joyce started handing out fliers for the limited quantity items that acted as the customer’s ticket to purchase that item. The customers could pick up the items at the customer service desk where they were stacked neatly on carts, then do the rest of their shopping.

The employees had been preparing for the shoppers for days, unloading trucks, collecting and arranging the merchandise. They had arrived early and all the checkouts were manned and waiting.

“Hopefully it’ll go smooth,” said Todd Brown, loss prevention manager at the store. “We do more business probably in the first four to five hours of the day than we’ll do for an entire week.”

Kmart was one of the later openings of the morning. Bath and Body Works and Sears had already been open for two hours by the time Kmart opened at 6 a.m.

“We had the big rush at 4 a.m.,” said Sears owner Brian Siek, whose store had several limited quantity 50 percent off sales on appliances. “The special washer-dryer sets sold out in like two minutes.”

Bath and Body Works had the early opening because Belk, which is also in the McIntosh shopping center, was opening at 4 a.m. They were still packed at 7 a.m.

The crowds were phenomenal, said manager Tonya Garey.

Sisters Shellie Morris and Diana Rabun had been to several stores before they arrived at the specialty store. They battle the crowds every year, hoping to get all their Christmas shopping done so they can enjoy the rest of the season.

“We even got up early yesterday morning and went shopping,” Morris said. “I like going back to work on Monday saying, ‘I’m done.’”

The stop at Bath and Body Works was not their last, but it was one of their favorites. There they picked up gifts for others, but also splurged on themselves after their hard morning of shopping.

“We’ve got to get a little something for us,” Rabun said with a laugh. “That’s why we’re in Bath and Body Works.”