POCATELLO — The area’s big box stores no longer have a monopoly on door busters, long lines and bargain-crazed Black Friday shoppers.

Local small businesses are increasingly looking to organize creative retail promotions on the day after Thanksgiving, which has traditionally been the year’s busiest shopping day.

At Barrie’s Ski & Sports, 624 Yellowstone Ave., a line formed outside the entrance more than an hour before the shop opened at 7 a.m. Like the box stores, Barrie’s offered extremely discounted door busters that sold out quickly.

“The skis and boots at $49, they’re all gone,” owner Barrie Hunt said. “They went fast.”

But even at 9:30 a.m., the shop was still packed with shoppers enticed by deals such as winter gloves marked down from $49.99 to $6.97 and buy-one-get-one-free ski socks.

Barrie said Friday was on pace to potentially be his best sales day ever. For the past five years, Hunt said he’s had to stock extra inventory to meet his Black Friday demand.

“We had six tills going, and we went through two hours of lines,” Hunt said. “Every year it picks up more and more.”

True bargain hunters, such as Steve Rice, of Coeur d’Alene, maximize their shopping efficiency on Black Friday through careful planning. Rice, who was in Pocatello visiting family, bought a newspaper and reviewed the advertisements with his family to choose the order of the stores they would visit. They arrived at Barrie’s before dawn to buy three pairs of skis, a bicycle, a helmet and goggles, and then hurried to Fred Meyer.

“Of our family of four, we just got (Christmas gifts) covered for three of them,” Rice said.

Other shoppers, like Jenny Stilling, simply “hit a couple of stores” at their leisure.

“I usually just wake up at the normal time and wait for all of the crazy people to go through, and I come out later in the day,” Stilling said.

Ace Hardware & Element Outfitters, 222 S. Fifth Ave., gave shoppers a coupon book, packed with promotions on tents, sleeping bags and other sporting goods. Many of the sales started on Thanksgiving.

“Pretty much all of our clothing is on sale for some sort of percentage,” said sales associate Jordyn Carlsen.

Molinelli’s Jewelers, 126 N. Main St., launched a pair of unique promotions on Black Friday. Owner Lance Buttars bought a special insurance policy for his Pray for Snow promotion. If it snows at least 5 inches at the Pocatello Regional Airport on the day of New Year’s Eve, all purchases made between Black Friday and Christmas Eve will be refunded.

“It’s an insured promotion, so that would be the best thing if it hit because I can’t buy that kind of advertising,” Buttars said. “I know other jewelers who have done it, and their event has been on national news because there’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in refunds.”

Buttars previously ran the promotion last winter and three winters ago. During the year in which he took off from the promotion, the snowfall would have been enough to qualify.

Throughout a week-long period beginning on Black Friday, Molinelli’s is also offering free gifts with purchases, based on the amount spent, including Apple watches, big-screen TVs and tablets.

“Black Friday used to never be an event for us. It was always the Walmarts and big box stores because of their door busters,” said Buttars, who believes his small business has found a “niche in Black Friday craziness.”

Priscilla Bake, manager of PAC Wellness, formerly Pocatello Athletic Club, 1435 N. Main St., acknowledges personal fitness isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when people think of Black Friday. Regardless, the club has had good luck with its past promotions. From Black Friday through Nov. 30, the club is running discounts on personal training, guest punch passes and full gym memberships with classes and eight monthly small group training sessions.

“Every year, we try to do something different,” Bake said.

Other local businesses, such as East Fork Bikes, 346 N. Main St., opted to participate in a different shopping tradition hosted on Nov. 24, called Small Business Saturday. Owner Ty Nelson spent Black Friday recreating at Grand Targhee Ski Resort. On Small Business Saturday, however, he planned discounts on apparel, snowboards and equipment packages.

Old Town Pocatello Inc. scheduled an event in conjunction with Small Business Saturday. Shops throughout Old Town hid candy canes in their stores, some redeemable for prizes, with values of up to $100. The event also included photos with Santa Claus at Station Square, cookies and milk for kids at The Yellowstone restaurant, the opportunity to meet Frosty the Snowman and other special activities.