“A huge group of kids just came in for ice cream,” said Sara J. Powell, an employee behind the counter at Herrell’s. “Although I hope it gets slower!” she joked.

A couple of people, aware of “Free Cone Day,” took one look at the Ben & Jerry’s line and headed straight for Herrell’s.

“The line [at Ben & Jerry’s] was too long,” Thomas M. Hamnett ’07 said.

Once Hamnett heard that the line at Ben & Jerry’s moved quickly, he left Herrell’s and decided to take advantage of the promotion nearby.

One Harvard senior sat in the empty Herrell’s savoring the peace and quiet of the calmer ice cream environment. She complained of the long lines, but said that her primary reason for skipping out on the free cone was a matter of taste.

“I just like Herrell’s more,” she said as she sat at a table eating her ice cream and reading a magazine.

Back at Ben & Jerry’s, people in line questioned the motives for this promotion.

“Maybe we should ask Feldstein why he thinks Ben & Jerry’s does this,” R. Linden Wooderson ’07 said of Baker Professor of Economics Martin S. Feldstein ’61, who teaches Social Analysis 10, “Principles of Economics.”

But it didn’t take a chaired professor to explain the store’s motivation.

“Giving away a lot of ice cream builds goodwill,” said Jason R. Sweeney, a Ben & Jerry’s employee who scooped ice cream all day. “It’s an amazing tradition.”

But regardless of how much goodwill is built, the promotion draws mobs of patrons.

One woman, disheartened by the line, skipped to the front and asked Sweeney if she could buy an ice cream cone rather than waiting.

“Not today,” Sweeney said. “Today, no one’s paying for ice cream.”

—Staff writer Claire G. Friedman can be reached at cfriedm@fas.harvard.edu.