You’re sleepy, you’re still digesting your Thanksgiving dinner, and yet the promise of slashed prices on toys, clothing, and electronics is pulling you, zombie-like, to a nearby mall.
    That was the scenario across the land this morning as consumers geared up for America’s greatest shopping day. 
    As a reward for getting out of bed, female shoppers at New Jersey’s Westfield Garden State Plaza were entertained by the “Calendar Cops,” beefy men in uniform who led the crowd in warm-up exercises.
    “They were getting the crowd motivated and stretched to power-shop today,” said Lisa Herrmann, marketing director of the Paramus, New Jersey mall.
    Other homey touches at California’s Folsom Premium Outlets included employees working in their pajamas and slippers as stores opened up at midnight.
    Toys “R” Us Chief Executive Gerald Storch suggested that the post-Thanksgiving shopping phenomenon may be biological.
    “As soon as the Thanksgiving meal is finished, something goes off. An alarm or some kind of inbred trigger goes off in the American shopper and they go out to the stores the next morning,” Storch told Reuters.
    Certainly, the deals don’t hurt.
    Janet LaFevre, director of marketing at the Glendale Galleria, one of Southern California’s largest malls, said signs in shop windows and straightforward promotions were helping direct shoppers to the best deals, such as half off everything at teen retail Aeropostale.
    “The retailers are not making you jump through huge hoops to find a great deal,” LaFevre said.
    Price wasn’t the only attraction. A good indication of a healthy shopping season, she said, was that lines were spilling outside stores not known for discounting. LaFevre cited as an example the mall’s Apple store, where approximately 50 people were queued up at 5:30 a.m. to buy the new (Product) RED special edition Nano, which benefits AIDS-related causes.