A local store which is a hole the wall comic store did this for the first time and I was very unimpressed by them. They limited what you could get to 2 items so I didn't even look at what was there as I was grabbing one item for me and another for a friend who couldn't make it. I bought some things from them but won't be going back there.
Our FLGS needs to limit each customer to two items because they get very busy, and they get four kits for the day. It's fair enough, too. There's probably plenty of that stuff on eBay already from folks who went somewhere and just grabbed everything they could. I live a few blocks down the street from Games Plus, so I poked my head in a couple of times and they were very busy all day long and people were also buying a lot of stuff, so good for them for doing the promotion but they get a pretty could crowd most days anyway. I, for one, and glad they purchase these Free RPG Day kits and think it is nice that I'm even given the chance to pick out one free item, let alone two. It's not like they even have to do it at all and there are plenty of places that don't (yet?).
I'm sure there are people that abuse it and sell the free offers. In years past I've heard store owners that have done it bitch about customers who do come in and grab stuff and then leave. Neither of those people are me. I use it to see new offers from smaller game companies but if I'm not able to sample the wares then I won't learn of some of the smaller companies. I'm I would guess the exact type of gamer that this should target. I am very willing to find and try new things, I tell lots of people what I find and like, and I spend way too much money on games. If I am limited to what I can get then I'm going to get the stuff I know I want.
Do they run games of the adventures and quick-starts?
Not to my knowledge and they didn't have any thing advertising that they do. It was a comic book store that sells very few RPG books or games.