FARMINGTON – It’s not often you get to see your friends and neighbors walking down the street in their jammies – or are encouraged to wear your own slippers for a morning on the town.

But if you roll out of bed on Saturday morning before sunrise and come downtown in your PJs, you won’t be out of place. You can even get some free coffee and munchkins at Reny’s.

Farmington’s downtown businesses hold an Early Bird Special sale every year, when from 6 until 9 in the morning, merchandise in many stores goes on sale, and salespeople greet shoppers at the door in bright pajamas and fluffy slippers.

“We’re very excited,” Reny’s manager Carol Robbins said Tuesday. “We’re wearing our PJs, so that’s always fun.”

Everything at Reny’s will be 20 percent off from 6 to 9 for the early bird, she said. Usually, the store does a week’s worth of sales in three hours. But that’s not the best part of the day, she said.

“It’s just a big high-energy” event, Robbins explained. “It definitely is the most exciting, fun-filled three hours of our lives here at Reny’s.”

Nearby, the Calico Patch is preparing for a different sort of sale. The store opens at 6, but the 20 percent off sale lasts all day, owner Emily Hartung said. “We figured it’s a nice way to say thank-you to the whole community,” she said.

Mickey’s Hallmark’s early bird sale is graduated. It’s 30 percent off from 6 to 7; 20 percent off from 7 to 8, and 10 percent off from 8 to 9. People usually line up there around 5:30, manager Margaret Silkman said.

Hordes of moviegoers also wait in line to buy discounted tickets to movies at Narrow Gauge Cinema. Early bird is the only day, all year, the tickets are discounted, Silkman said.

The high volume of sales generated during Early Bird – thousands more customers, said Hartung – means lots of preparation.

“Our freight trucks are running hot and heavy this week,” Robbins said.

With part of Broadway blocked off since July and roadwork causing havoc downtown for the past month, shop owners have worried about their less-mobile customers not being able to find parking nearby.

This Saturday, though, folks shouldn’t have to worry. Roadwork is not being done Saturday, Town Manager Richard Davis said.

“The street will be opened up and hopefully that should be sufficient (for shoppers),” he said.