WALWORTH COUNTY, Wis. -- At Fleet Farm stores across Wisconsin Friday morning, the sun didn’t need to be up for people to see plenty of orange.

Starting before 6 a.m., dozens of people lined up for the start of Orange Friday.

The Appleton-based chain opens it doors early the day before gun-deer season kicks off, offering shoppers discounts on merchandise and a free blaze orange hat.

At the store in Delavan, Friday proved to be a social experience. Troy Hummel brought his daughter before school to hunt out a few bargains.

“We have always done this as a family tradition, we thought why stop now? We can keep ourselves socially distant and still have some fun doing it,” says Hummel.

Staff at the store says that while the kickoff to gun-deer season is always busy, this year they have seen a renewed interest from customers.

“It has been an industry wide thing, there are a lot of people who have not been able to do a lot this year so the deer hunting, they are very excited about that,” says Delavan Fleet Farm General Manager Joel Garcia.

Garcia says that while customers look for a variety of hunting related items in store, Orange Friday sees particularly strong sales of last minute hunting items like hand warmers and snacks to take on the road. ​