I'm thankful for many things, but as a shopper I'm especially thankful for healthy competition between stores, coupons that are worth at least $1 and don't require you to buy more than what you need, sales that slash prices by at least 30 percent, free shipping, finding the unexpected in the most predictable stores and finding exactly what you need in the most unpredictable stores.

So, what is your inner shopper thankful for this year? Cast your vote or add your own ideas in the comments section. (Be sure to come back to Shop To It on Black Friday and read all about my 4 a.m. shopping excursion.)

Love it or not, Black Friday is fast approaching. It's the official kickoff to the holiday shopping season and people either happily ignore the day or embrace it in all its frenzied glory. I recently tapped into the expertise of Dan de Grandpre, founder and CEO of Dealnews.com, for some insight into what we'll see on Friday and the Monday after Thanksgiving, the day many people hit the online stores. Here are his best tips for shopping those two days:

Tip #1: Before you set out for that Black Friday shopping trip, check the store's online sites for deals. De Grandpre says many stores will be offering the same merchandise and discounts in their online stores as their brick and mortar shops. Checking online first will save you the aggravation and hassle of venturing out to the mall.

Tip #2: Don't wait until Friday for the Black Friday deals. Many retailers will be posting their discounts on their Web sites on Thanksgiving. So check out their sites between the turkey and apple pie. Wal-Mart for one has already posted its Black Friday ad.

Tip #3: Cyber Monday will be the day to get deals at online-only stores like Overstock.com and Buy.com. Smartbargains.com, JoS. A. Bank, Discovery Channel, HSN are some other places to check out on Monday. The stores that are normally the stars on Black Friday, like Wal-Mart and Kohl's, will also have Cyber Monday sales but they won't be as good as their Black Friday deals.

Tip #4: Be prepared for a little uncertainty this year. Normally de Grandpre and other retail experts say Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the best days to shop for the holidays but this year retailers are more desperate than ever so there's a good chance that prices will continue to drop. In fact many retailers are counting on a lucrative Thanksgiving weekend. If it doesn't happen you may be seeing liquidation sales.

Tip #5: The best products to buy on Black Friday will be electronics such as low-end televisions and laptops. De Grandpre predicts that shoppers will be able to snag 50-inch plasmas and 46-inch LCD television for under $1,000. You'll also find some basic, lower-priced televisions for a bedroom or child's room for around $300. GPS navigation systems made by Garmin and Tom Tom will be around $100. And Apple will have one of its best sales of the season, de Grandpre adds. Most of its merchandise from iPods to laptops will be marked down. Best Buy is offering 10% off Apple gear to add a little competition for the Apple stores.

Tip #6: If you're in the market for high-end jewelry like an engagement ring, de Grandpre says to shop online first at sites like Ice.com, Diamond.com and Bluenile.com, print out their prices and deals and take them to your local jeweler. They may be in a position to match the deal. "If you buy it locally, you'll feel better about who's backing it," he says.

Tip #7: Be careful with mail-in rebates and gift cards. Not to be too doom-and-gloom but you never which retailer will go under next. A gift card or rebate may become worthless if the retailer goes bye-bye.

So what are your tips for shopping Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Will you be out there or will you wait until closer to the holidays?

Turkey? Check. Potatoes for mashing? Check. Ingredients for apple pie? Check. A table large enough for everyone to sit? Uhhh. If I ever hosted my family's Thanksgiving dinner, people would be sitting... well, on the floor. The kids would love it. The adults? Not so much. Here are a few tips on figuring out what to rent and what to buy to accommodate your Thanksgiving guests.

Tip #1: If you're renting one or two items like a table or a set of china, pick up the item rather than have it delivered, says Rita Bloom, an event planner with Creative Parties in Bethesda. You'll save on the hefty delivery fees.

Tip #2: Rent everything from one place. That way if you do need to have it delivered, you'll only have one delivery charge and it'll be easier to keep track of where everything came from.

Tip #3: Don't bother shopping around for different rental prices, Bloom says. If you find one item that you like at one rental place, just get everything else at that same place. "The prices are very close in all these companies," she says. "It's important to find the one item you like and stick with it."

Tip #4: If you rent a table, go with a round one rather than rectangular. They offer more flexibility in trying to fit the most amount of people, according to Bloom. A 5 ½- foot table can easily fit 8 to 12 people.

Tip #5: If you've put all your money toward getting a big fat turkey and you don't want to shell out more for a table rental, Blooms recommends buying a wooden board at the local hardware store that's slightly larger than your current dining table. It can be placed on top of your table to make it wider and longer. Just make sure you get a nice big table cloth or a piece of fabric to cover your enlarged table.

Tip #6: Consider buying disposable china rather than renting real china. These days you can get plastic plates with gold trim that look remarkably close to the real stuff.

Tip #7: Don't forget about coffee. If you have a 8-cup coffee maker but 20 coffee drinkers coming over, you'll be brewing pots all day. Most rental places have coffee makers that can handle anywhere from 25 cups to 100. (Hey, you know what happens when you eat turkey.)

Tip #8: Serving platters are also one of those things that are better bought than rented. You can pick up a large ceramic platter at the Crate & Barrel Outlet for under $15. I saw them with my own eyes.

So how will you accommodate your Thanksgiving guests? Any recommendations on a rental place? Have any of your own tricks for getting around having to rent?

One thing I've learned since writing this blog for the last year is that shoppers don't just want a bunch of bananas or a gallon of milk. You want to enjoy the experience of buying those things. At least that's what your comments made me believe when I recently wrote about Wegmans, a grocery store chain that's as luxurious as Whole Foods but as cheap as Giant. Many of you wrote about the good prices at Wegmans but you mostly gushed about the store itself.

Take for example "skipper7," who writes, "As big as [Wegmans is] I feel like this is my corner grocer, especially in the seafood and meat department where Anne knows what portion sizes I look for in a steak or pork chop."

Or "FormerUpstater," who wrote, "At Wegmans, they have a gazillion check-out lines, ALL of which are open, and even though there are thousands of people in the store you never have to wait more than five minutes to start checking out!"

There were gripes about the dirt factor in Giant and Safeway, the long lines, the bruised produce and the less than friendly employees. And those comments are matched with the lack of deals there, too.

That also explains your comments when I wrote about C-mart, a discount store in Landover that recently closed its doors for good last month. You were basically shopping in a warehouse filled with everything from furniture to shoes. People either loved it or hated it. And those who hated it said so because of the atmosphere and the quality of the items. Never mind the huge discounts.

So do we shoppers value the shopping experience over getting good deals? Only if you have the money, says Pam Danziger, a retail industry consultant with Unity Marketing and author of "Shopping: Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience." The state of our economy will force most people to look for deals, no matter how unpleasant the shopping experience. But families who have the funds to spend a little more will seek out poshness when they run out for a gallon of milk.

"There are consumers who are simply shopping for price because they have to," she says. "There are lots of people who feel this [recession] but they don't feel it as much. They aren't driven solely by price. They'll spend time in a store that is more delightful than going to the plain old grocery store."

So what's more important to you: cheap prices or shopping in comfort? Do you like to hunt for good deals or are you willing to pay a little extra to just pick up an item and go?

What's not to love about Trader Joe's? The staff all wear Hawaiian shirts, the store is chock full of unique things to eat and drink and there always seems to be some really good deals. Try shopping at any of the region's 16 Trader Joe's and you'll see its large following of shoppers. Consumer Reports magazine ranked it the second best supermarket chain in the country after Wegmans. And we all know how I feel about Wegmans these days. So here are some things you didn't know about Trader Joe's:

1. In a former life Trader Joe's competed with 7-Eleven. Instead of the unique neighborhood grocery store that it is now, Trader Joe's, which went by Prontos, was more of a convenience store. But in the late 1960s the small chain, which was only in Southern California, was converted to the neighborhood grocery store we know and love.

2. Trader Joe's is 50 years old, started in Pasadena, Calif., by a guy named Joe Coulombe, a Stanford University MBA who has since handed over reins of the company to other smart people.

3. The store carries 2,000 unique grocery items, with at least 80 percent of them exclusive to Trader Joe's. The rest comes from all over the world, except China. The company decided to stop carrying anything made in China two years ago because of customer concerns, according to a company spokesperson.

4. Each Trader Joe's store has its own in-house artist, many of whom have formal training in art and design. So that means the artwork on the signs and other displays is exclusive to each store.

5. Every Trader Joe's has a plastic lobster somewhere in its midst. There's no explanation for it and no one has admitted to starting the trend but each store gets one. And that bell that you hear from time to time is the signal that a food demonstration is about to begin.

Correction: Boy, you readers are good. Thanks to those of you who pointed out my bell mistake. It's true that if you hear a single bell ring in a Trader Joe's store, it means that more cashiers are needed, two bells means a cashier needs a price check, a balloon to be blown up or an item needs to be put back on the shelf and three rings means that a manager is needed.

6. Any product on the shelf can be sampled. Employees are allowed to open up any jar or box to let customers try them. No can do on wine, though.

7. Trader Joe's has its own fan club. The Trader Joe's Fan Club, launched by a faithful customer in 2006, has about 9,000 members who can get 550 recipes and 680 product reviews from its Web site.

8. Speaking of Trader Joe's fans, two of its biggest put together a cookbook called "Cooking With All Things Trader Joe's" that was released earlier this year. Literally every ingredient in every recipe can be purchased at the small grocery store.

9. The company is owned by a family trust set up by Theo Albrecht, the German billionaire who started the grocery store chain Aldi, a store I reviewed over the summer.

10. Trader Joe's total sales reached $6.5 billion in 2007, according to Supermarket News.

Which stores would you like to know more about? E-mail me at shoptoit@washingtonpost.com with some suggestions.

Dear Wegmans,

A crazy thing happened to me this weekend. I fell madly in love with you. I know what you're thinking. Countless people told me to come see you. You even sent me dozens of e-mails, begging for a chance. But I stayed committed to Giant. What can I say? Giant is closer and quite honestly, I courted other grocery stores and Giant was the cheapest. But now I realize that cheap isn't always better.

I finally decided to see you after that one e-mail last week. The one that talked about how you were lowering your prices and how you were trying to save me some money. I appreciate that Wegmans. I really do. I came on Sunday morning, promising to stay 45 minutes to get to know you. But you swept me off my feet from the moment I walked through the door and was face to face with your produce. And I just couldn't tear away from your warm embrace, the dim lights, the nice employees, the cordial customers and that charming little train that kept zooming around above my head.

After discovering your beautiful produce, I turned the corner and found myself in your marketplace section. I didn't even know where I was but I liked it. There were prepared meals, fresh baked breads and muffins, even a place to sit down and have someone prepare a lunch or dinner for us. I stopped by your fresh fish counter and got some salmon for $8.99 a pound. And then I quickly ditched my plan to get frozen shrimp and got a pound of fresh shrimp for $7.99. I passed by your wines and picked up two bottles, one for under $8 and the other for under $6. And then I grabbed a 5-pound package of chicken breast for a little more than $13. I was bleary-eyed and crazy by this point but I knew I didn't want to leave.

I spent more than an hour going through your aisles buying the stuff that I usually get at Giant and more. You offered so much at lower prices and some were the same price as Giant, which I'm OK with. It's just that some things were a little more expensive. Not cool Wegmans, but I can overlook that. We'll just have to work through this. You promised in that little e-mail last week that you were going to work on lowering your prices so I'll be patient. If you stick to your promise, I'll come back, even though it will be a long-distance relationship.

Sincerely,

Me

P.S. Let's not tell Giant about this.

A few weeks ago Shoppers Food Warehouse challenged customers to find a cheaper grocery store. They said they would reimburse customers double the difference in price if they found comparable lower-priced items at a different store. I've written several times in this blog about the best places to buy groceries and I crowned Giant Food the cheapest store in the region. Many of you disagreed, some stating that Shoppers was really the cheapest, especially since Giant's recent re-branding campaign. Some of you challenged the value of the shopping experience, saying Giant stores were less than pleasant. And many of you expressed love and loyalty for Wegmans and Trader Joe's.

In the interest of finding the lowest prices, I took the Shoppers challenge. I recently compared the prices of 15 items, which included juice, meat, crackers, fruit and vegetables, that I buy on a weekly basis for my family of four. I put Shoppers' prices against Giant's regular prices and against their loyalty card prices.

My conclusion: Shoppers is cheaper than Giant when comparing non-sale prices but not by much. I paid 99 cents more at Giant for my 15 items at regular prices than what I paid for the same exact items at Shoppers. But Giant beat out Shoppers, which touts that it doesn't need to offer a loyalty card, when you use Giant's BonusCard. My 15 items were more than $3 cheaper at Giant than at Shoppers because several of the items were on sale. Giant's card is the only way customers can take advantage of sale prices while Shoppers offers sale prices to everyone.

Loyalty cards aside, the average price difference between Shoppers and Giant was about 50 cents. The California Pizza Kitchen pizza and the Green Giant frozen vegetables that I regularly buy were both 50 cents cheaper at Shoppers. The Mott's juice I buy was 10 cents cheaper and a box of couscous was 36 cents cheaper at Shoppers. But Giant won when it came to Laura's lean meat, which was $5.69 per pound at Shoppers and on sale for $4.29 at Giant. Even Giant's regular price was lower, at $5.29. Shoppers' prices on strawberries, blueberries and melons were lower but usually by only a penny. But as I wrote recently, Shoppers does have the best deals on pet food.

I made two attempts to contact Supervalu, Shoppers' parent company, but they didn't return my phone call or e-mail.

Even though Giant's sale prices change every week and I can't guarantee that using the BonusCard will always get me a better deal, I will continue to shop at Giant. While there's no question that some Giant stores have seen better days, the one that I happen to go to is clean, bright and pleasant.

So, do you shop at either of these stores? How many stores do you travel to just to save a few pennies or bucks? Do we go one place to get pet food and then drive somewhere else to buy toilet paper and then make another stop for meats and vegetables? Gas prices have dropped but it's still expensive to fill up the tank. How are you saving money on groceries these days?

By the way, Veterans Day is coming up, which means lots of sales. Here are a few:

-Crate & Barrel Outlet stores have up to 70% off Thanksgiving goodies like cookware sets for $149, cookbooks for $4.95 and sets of three platters for $13.50.

-Nordstrom is having its half-yearly sale on women and kids items. That means 40% or more off clothes, shoes, handbags and accessories.

-In case you haven't heard, Linens 'n Things is going out of business and is trying to get rid of its inventory. All furniture, dinnerware, serverware, decorative accessories, quilts, coverlets and bedskirts are 30 percent off. All kitchen electrics, personal care electrics, vacuums and irons, glassware, lighting and storage are 20 percent off.

-JCPenney has marked down items in every department by 30 to 60% if you shop online and free shipping for orders more than $69. You can stop by the store on Saturday between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. for more sales and an extra 10% off sale prices.

I hadn't heard the term "layaway" since I was a kid. But then Kmart recently decided to bring back this payment option for Christmas. So if you walk into Kmart and see that TV you've been pining for, you can ask the store to hold it for you while you make weekly payments until you completely pay it off and get to take it home. The store will ask for a fee to hold the item for you. The store says 3.2 million shoppers used its layaway plan last year. "It's a nice idea if you're really trying to keep your household budget in line and not subject yourself to willy nilly spending," says Tod Marks, a senior editor with Consumer Reports magazine. Marshalls and T.J. Maxx offer layaway plans, too. If you're planning on using this payment option, here are a few tips:

Tip #1: Get it in writing. The Federal Trade Commission says you should have the terms of the layaway plan in writing and include things like how much time you have to pay for the merchandise, when the payments are due, the minimum payment required and fees for using the plan.

Tip #2: Don't miss a payment or your TV could end up going back to the sales floor. Find out what your store does if you're late with a payment or miss it altogether. Some might give you a few days of leeway.

Tip #3: Ask anybody and everybody if they offer layaway. Usually it's the big box stores that offer these payment options but smaller independent stores may have their own plans as well.

Tip #4: Make sure you know what happens if you decide you don't want that gigantic TV afterall. Some stores give you back all your money and others charge a non-refundable service fee to put the stuff back on the sales floor. Others may offer a store credit for the amount you paid.

Tip #5: Don't go crazy with layaway. You will want to be able to keep up with payments and if you have too many layaway plans going at the same time, it might become overwhelming. "You want to be able to keep track of all the items," says Marks, who also writes the Tightwad Tod blog for Consumer Reports.

Tip #6: Don't set yourself up for disaster. Make sure you're giving yourself enough time to pay off the item. If the weekly payments are too big, then you may be forced to give it up. Marks says if you're buying a big-ticket item for Christmas, consider putting it on layaway this week to be able to handle the weekly payments.

Tip #7: Layaway is not just for the brick and mortar stores. eLayaway is a payment option with a select number of online stores including Apple, Adidas and The Gap. The site charges a 1.9 percent service fee and will send you the items you ordered as soon as you finish paying it off.

Have you ever used a layaway plan? What tips do you have for using layaway?

Man's best friend can also be one of man's biggest expenses. Whether yours is a dog or cat, buying their gear can be a major drain on the wallet. So I went in search of the best deals on basic pet supplies. I visited six stores and a few Web sites to see who had the best deals on dog and cat food, as well as toys, collars and leashes and kitty litter.

As much as I love to support small mom and pop shops, I limited my research to stores most people in the region would have access to. But please let us know if your neighborhood pet supply store has some great deals. I went to Petco, PetSmart, Target, Kmart, Giant and Shoppers Food Warehouse and then compared their prices to online stores. By the end of the day I smelled like dog food and had kitty litter on my shoes, but I now know where to shop. Here's what I found:

-You'll get the best variety of stuff at stores like Petco and PetSmart but you'll also pay the highest prices even if you use their loyalty cards. The Iams dog food that I buy for my pooch was a whole $2 cheaper at Shoppers Food Warehouse for the same size bag at Petco and PetSmart. But the grocery store has a limited selection so you risk not even being able to find some basic brands of dog and cat food there. The Shoppers Food Warehouse I went to only had one small bag of the food I buy.

-PetSmart was cheaper than Petco across the board. For example, Purina Cat Chow at PetSmart was $2 cheaper for the same-size bag at Petco. Science Diet cat food at PetSmart was also $6 lower on a 10-pound bag than Petco's prices on the same size bag. Even some of the dog toys were $1 or $2 cheaper at PetSmart. Its Web site had some deals too, if you don't mind paying shipping costs.

-For a non-mega pet store, Target had the better deals on most items, although Giant and Shoppers Food Warehouse had comparable prices on dog and cat food. Some of Target's best deals were on kitty litter. It had a 28-pound bucket of Scoop Away litter for $10.99 compared to Petco's sale price of $13.04 and PetSmart's $12.99 price tag. A rubber Kong toy for dogs was also the same price at Target as other stores or $1 cheaper on certain sizes.

-You won't find any deals online. Or at least I didn't at Amazon.com, Jefferspet.com and PetFoodDirect.com. Petco's own Web site even had some higher prices than its own brick and mortar store. Have you found any online deals?

Where do you buy your pet supplies? Who has the best deals?

The scariest thing about Halloween for me is how it always seems to sneak up on me. This was never a problem until I started having kids and they insisted on dressing up. And as much as I try to convince my daughter to be a 5-year-old preschooler for Halloween, it doesn't seem to fly. So here I am a few days before the dress-up holiday, scrambling to find some decent costumes. Here's what you can still get for this year's event:

Seasonal stores: Spirit Halloween and Total Fright, which are only open in September and October, still have costumes and accessories to sell. Total Fright, in Georgetown and Arlington, opens from Sept. 1 through Nov. 2 and has some costumes left, although things are going quickly, according to owner Lorenzo Caltagirone. He says there are even some accessories like hats and masks for simpler costumes. The store's Web site can get a costume shipped to you by Friday if you order by Tuesday but you'll have to pay for overnight shipping. The store will also mark down several of its costumes and accessories the few days that it remains open after Halloween. Spirit Halloween, which has about 12 stores in the area, also has a wide range of costumes for children and adults. You can get a boys Batman or Joker costume for $34.99; Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz for $29.99; a candy corn witch, which is popular with teenagers, for $59.99; adult-size Sesame Street characters for $49.99 and Playboy-licensed women's costumes for $119.99. The store is also guaranteeing Halloween delivery if you order from its Web site. You'll have to pay for two-day shipping if you order by noon on Tuesday or overnight shipping if you order by noon on Wednesday.

Rentals: Costumes Creative in Silver Spring has 15,000 adult costumes to rent or 100 to buy. You'll find some high-end costumes like elaborate witches or pirate costumes ranging from $85 to $150 for rental. But the store also has lower-priced options like vampire fangs for $15 and make-up kits for $25. "You're only limited by your own imagination," says T.J. Pekin, manager of the store.

Online: Buycostumes.com says you can still get a costume delivered by Halloween. But you'd better call to make sure it's in stock since there are 100 people taking orders at the same time. If you order today, you'll have to spend $9.99 for two-day shipping and it may get there on Thursday or Friday. You can get adult costumes like the Joker from "The Dark Knight" movie for $29.99, Indiana Jones for $36.99 or children's costumes like The Little Mermaid for $38.99 or an astronaut for $49.99.

Decorations: Hallmark has already started marking down some its Halloween decor. You can find half-off deals, including some the annual goofy musical decorations they sell close to the front of the store. The store will also mark down items up to 75% the day after Halloween. World Market has also already discounted its collection of Halloween decorations by 25-50%. They also have deals on candy like two large bags of assorted candy for $5 or bags of individually wrapped animal cookies or cheddar crackers for $1.99.

Update: CVS/pharmacy will mark down nearly all of its leftover Halloween merchandise 50 percent on Saturday. Spirit Halloween has also given me word that it will mark down its costumes 25 percent and everything else 50 percent the day after Halloween. Then on November 2, everything, including costumes, will be marked down 50 percent.

Where are you finding last-minute Halloween gear? Who has the best deals?