That's what retailers anxious to lure holiday shoppers are hoping to find out with their latest innovation: Walmart, Kmart, Sears and eBay are all testing versions of the "real" online store.

Amazon plays by its own rules -- and the online retail giant usually wins. Check out this infographic by blogger FrugalDad that gives you a peek at who you're paying when you opt for the Free SuperSaver Shipping.

Though Americans aren't buying homes, clothes, gas, or furniture, we're still spending on gadgets, according to Tuesday's retail sales report from the Department of Commerce. Overall retail sales rose 0.6% in October, mostly due to higher electronics and appliance sales.

Anyone who ever enjoyed a horror film knows the fascination a gruesome death can provoke. But no fictional horror can produce the frisson generated by the items for sale on websites like SerialKillersInk.net and MurderAuction.com: Real artifacts and artwork from the crime scenes and prison cells of the world's most famous serial killers.

With Walmart's announcement that it will open at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving, the holiday has morphed into Black Friday Eve. But for the anti-consumerism camp, Nordstrom is king: For the sixth year year in a row, it won't even decorate for Christmas, let alone do any holiday marketing, until Thanksgiving is officially over.

At a time when the music industry is Auto-Tuning its own eulogy and Hollywood has all but given up on DVDs, 1.5 million people lined up at midnight events to score copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, proving that even in an era when more of us want our entertainment for free, some things are still considered worth their price.

Anyone who lined up outside their local Target early one Tuesday morning this past September to score some Missoni -- and witnessed the retail carnage that ensued -- will be well prepared for Black Friday. Target, on the other hand, may not be as ready -- especially when it comes to its website.

For many of the millions of Americans still out of work, shopping on Black Friday has become a luxury they can no longer afford. But some entrepreneurial consumers are refusing to be left with empty bags. They're going shopping for those doorbusters -- but for you, and for a fee.

EBay has come a long way since its days as an Internet flea market. Today, 62% of eBay listings are fixed price, not auctions, and 70% are new. But the website's devoted cadre of loyal used item sellers feels like its recently launched "buy it new" campaign is selling them out.

Be on the look out for going-out-of-business sales at a Filene's Basement near you. The Massachusetts-based discount retailer announced Wednesday morning that it has filed for bankruptcy -- for the third time -- and plans to close its 21 discount stores in the next few months.