The Grinch got run over by die-hard Utah shoppers on Black Friday.

At 6 a.m. Friday when Target flung open its doors for business, more than 1,000 bleary-eyed bargain hunters, some of whom had been camping outside the Orem store since 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, stampeded into the store for doorbuster specials like $3.98 DVDs, $59 Wii Guitar Hero World Tour, cheap bedding, toys and winter wear.

Likewise, stores along University Parkway including Best Buy, Toys 'R' Us, ShopKo, Kohl's and JCPenney in Provo saw lines stretching as fars as a few blocks from the doors before their scheduled opening in predawn hours Friday despite a freezing rain.

At Wal-Mart in Orem, its 700-space parking lot was filled to capacity in pre-dawn hours as thousands of early birds arrived to stake out pallets of discounted merchandise -- some by as much as 70 percent.

More than 20 people standing by the KitchenAid pallet at the store literally dove for the popular mixers as workers kicked off Black Friday sales at 5 a.m. Unfortunately, there were only 10 mixers, which were hot items this year because these were priced at just $130, more than half off their normal list price of nearly $300.

"There was a lot of scratching, hair-pulling and tackling for KitchenAids," said Jessica Wall, who was at the Orem store at 3:30 a.m. Friday for a $28 Bissel vacuum, a $15 Black & Decker coffee maker and more than 20 DVDs, ranging between $2 and $9 each.

The economy may be in a funk, and most people may be in a belt-tightening mood, but that hasn't stopped bargain hunters like Wall -- who cut her holiday budget in half this year -- from taking advantage of retailers' aggressive discounts to stretch dollars.

"Normally I don't come out for Black Friday sales. But this year, it seems like retailers are suffering more and consumers are getting the better part of the deal," Wall said. "And it helps that gas prices, after running up so high, have dropped so much."

Aggressive retailers

Black Friday -- which accounts for up to 50 percent of retailers' annual sales and profits and determines their profitability for the year -- could instead mark the beginning of the end for a number of struggling retailers who could go bankrupt after the holidays if they fail to meet their sales and profit targets this year.

And with slow sales leading up to the holiday season, and fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year -- 27 days vs. 32 last year -- retailers went into overdrive this year to avoid getting stuck with too much inventory in January.

Not only has there been an unprecedented early release of Black Friday deals -- many of which began early this week -- retailers are offering more Black Friday deals than they have in the past. JCPenney offered 400 Black Friday specials, which represents an increase of 20 percent over last year. And Kohl's Corp., which didn't include its priciest, most fashion-forward lines by designer Vera Wang and Elle magazine on sale last Black Friday, slashed prices on those lines by 40 to 50 percent this year.

Notebook computers from HP, Toshiba and Sony; HDTVs; iPod Nanos; GPS systems; and men's and women's outerwear with discounts between 50 and 65 percent were among some of the hottest sellers on Black Friday.

Scott Sneddon, manager of the new Kohl's store in Orem, said advertising Black Friday sales more aggressively and getting more stock of what customers wanted paid off in terms of sales and traffic. "The hot sellers this year included the $19.99 Tonka Dump Truck & Front-End Loader and $79.99 Nextar GPS navigation units. This year, we had 150 GPS units instead of only 50 last year."

Many stores nationwide and in Utah opened extra early with door-buster specials for early birds. JCPenney and Kohl's opened at 4 a.m. Best Buy, Sears, Toys 'R' Us, Wal-Mart and Macy's opened at 5 a.m., while Burlington Coat Factory, for the first time, opened at 6 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. on Black Friday.

Becky Diamond, manager of Burlington in Orem, said the department store chain introduced early-bird specials such as $9.99 faux shearling boots and $49.99 Wii Guitar Hero Guitars. And that helped attract early birds to the store.

"Normally, the crowds would be outside Toys 'R' Us or Best Buy. But this year, there were up to 50 people in line outside the store when I got here," she said.

Spending habits

But how much are consumers spending this yearfi

While lower gasoline prices and aggressive discounts have succeeded in luring Black Friday shoppers to stores, many are cutting back spending in the face of a weak economy.

Consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of the economy, has retrenched sharply as Americans worry about their jobs and shrinking retirement savings. Analysts predict that holiday sales will fall this year, some say by as much as 5 percent, as consumers put off discretionary spending and focus on necessities.

The National Retail Federation projects that year-over-year holiday sales will rise a modest 2.2 percent to $470 billion, with the number of shoppers over the Black Friday weekend expected to fall to 128 million from 135 million last year.

As Americans saw their stock portfolios shrink, big banks fail, foreclosures rise, and friends lose their jobs, they scaled back on spending.

U.S. households expect to spend an average of $418 on holiday gifts this year, down from an estimated $471 last year, according to a survey conducted by custom research house TNS for the New York-based Conference Board. The portion of households planning to spend $500 or more on presents dropped to 27 percent from 33 percent last year.

Target shopper Melanie Knight of Heber is cutting her holiday budget to $1,000 this year because her husband, a residential builder, is worried about the housing slump.

Knight, who used to shop twice a week in Provo, has cut her shopping trips to twice a month now. "There are lots of bank-owned properties, vacant homes in Heber that are just waiting for buyers. There's a $600,000 unfinished home in our neighborhood that's now offered for $300,000. We were planning to sell our home but now we can't do it because of the state of the market."

"We don't want to buy a car or a house because now there's a concern, 'what if we lose our jobsfi' " she said.

Even Ron Wilkinson, a family law attorney who was shopping for his wife and 10 children at Wal-Mart at 5 a.m. Friday, said he is more cautious this year and has trimmed his holiday budget.

Even though his law firm is doing well and he also derives additional income from his apartment rentals, he said he was less likely to splurge on new clothes or a new TV, despite being tempted by the Orem store's 50-inch plasma TVs, which are priced about 40 percent less than a year ago.

"I'm saving more this year, getting more food storage, eating out less and doing more $1 movies," Wilkinson said. He said he has seen a spike in divorces this year, with financial disputes cited as a top reason.