Sean McElroy lined up at 11:15 p.m. Tuesday so he could be the first customer to walk through Krispy Kreme’s doors in downtown Denver on Wednesday morning and leave with a free dozen doughnuts for this week and every week for a year.
Nearly 200 people waited on the 16th Street Mall, some such as McElroy since the night before and others straggling in between 4 and 6 a.m., in the hopes of getting free doughnuts. Only the first 99 people after McElroy got a free dozen every month for a year.
The mood was cheery and excited toward the front of the line, where customers bonded overnight with games of Uno and dancing in the street. Toward the end, the group was quieter and sleepy, with grumblings about line-cutters and that those who followed the no-camping rule got a raw deal.
“They should have been here earlier,” said MaeLani Lee, 29, who was one of the first to get doughnuts. “When it’s free, it tastes so much better.”
Lee got in line about 11:45 p.m. with friends, including D’Kilwayte John, 23. The two were celebrating their birthdays. They went on a road trip last year, but she said free doughnuts were better.
McElroy lined up after he got off work Tuesday and figured he would stick it out through the night because he didn’t have to go in the next day. He said free doughnuts every week for a year will be great for his staff at Family Dollar. Other people waiting in line had similar sentiments.
“I’m hungry,” McElroy said after a six-hour wait.
Tyler Traylor, 18, and Jacob Monroe, 19, were technically first in line about 9 p.m. but left, only to return five minutes after McElroy.
“We were planning that not many would be here for a while,” Traylor said. But Monroe said McElroy was nice and that they still had fun.
Ryan Riffle was No. 101 in line, just shy of the free dozen he had been hoping to get for his boss — “He’s a big doughnut fan.”
“What do we get for being No. 101 and 102?” Riffle asked the man behind him in line, who had gotten there at 4:10 a.m. The answer: Krispy Kreme handed out coupons for a free single doughnut to everyone after No. 100 until the coupons ran out.
Krispy Kreme workers didn’t expect this many people to show up because the store doesn’t have a parking lot and the city has a no-camping ordinance.
Michelle Orlando, executive vice president with franchise-owner Feel Good Brands, described Krispy Kreme doughnut customers as “fanatical.”
“These fans are loyal,” Orlando said. “They come to say they did it for one time.”
