Shoppers waited hours in line for the grand opening of Forever 21-located in the old Gottschalks building.
Forever 21 opened at 10:00 a.m. But, long before that nearly 1,000 people stood in a line that wrapped half way around the mall.
People's excitement over the opening of Forever 21's newest location inside Fashion Fair Mall was evident Saturday.
Store employees cheered as they passed a long line that stretched around several buildings.
Some shoppers started arriving as early as midnight.
"Why did you guys decide to come out so early?" "I don't know. It just seemed like a fun thing to do. Spur of the moment.," Alexis Washington said.
"And it was really fun camping out. It was. We had fun. We were singing, dancing, ha ha." Tony Mac of Fresno and her friends were among the first in line.
One reason people were willing to wait so long, "free gift cards and they're having a raffle for purses and guys clothes, and all that stuff," Dalila Aguirre of Fresno said.
As the doors opened energetic employees greeted shoppers and passed out those sought after gift cards.
The store gave away 400 worth between $10 and $210.
Only one $210 gift card was given away and it was to a guy who says his girlfriend dragged him to the store.
"I didn't think I was gonna get it cause I'm a guy and I don't really shop at all," Vincent Xiong of Sanger said.
At nearly 150,000 square feet, this Forever 21 is more than ten times the size of its previous Fashion Fair location.
It's also now the largest store in the entire Los Angeles based Company. More than 500 employees were hired earlier this year to work at the store.
District manager--Denise Cedeno says---she has no doubt it will be a success. "I believe it's more exciting. High fashion, you know, the vibe of the store is a department store, but very trendy."
"It's huge. There's so many types of clothes there. It's good," Tayler Jenkins said.
