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Layaway no longer is a service of the past. This holiday season, Toys R Us is bringing back this gift-payment option that allows consumers to pay for purchases gradually in a specific period of time. Many consumers have begun using layaway to avoid paying with a credit card.

Sears and Kmart stores already have layaway, but this year, they are offering the service online.

Here are the particulars of Toys R Us' layaway. It requires that you pay 20 percent of the total purchase price upfront and a $10 service charge.

With the rise of layaway this year, below are some tips from Shop Smart magazine about how to get the most out of this payment option:

1. Sign up to have payments automatically taken out of your account. It will help you to keep up with the payments.

2. Think before you buy to be sure that you can afford to pay off the item and set a realistic budget.

3. Bundle items, especially at stores that require a flat layaway fee.

I'm looking for people who are using layaway or plan to use layaway for Christmas purchases this season. If you'd like to talk about it, e-mail me at jenny.boone@roanoke.com.

Everywhere we turn, retailers are trying to entice us with some kind of deal. Lately, these promotions seem to flag items that are less than a certain dollar amount.

For example, there is Walmart's 100 toys under $10 promotion. 

Valley View Mall also is advertising 20 items under $20. Some of the ideas, specific to the fall season, are Charlotte Russe plaid shorts for $19.99, J.C. Penney necklace sets for $18.99 and Old Navy cowl neck shirts for $16.50.

Click here for more of the mall's 20 under $20 suggestions.

What other promotions like this have you noticed?

Yesterday, I listened to a conference call with the National Retail Federation and BIG Research. It was a discussion of some of the spending trends that we're likely to see or take on ourselves this holiday season.

The NRF reported yesterday that the average consumer will spend $682.74 on holiday purchases this year, which is down from $705.01 in 2008.

For a run-down of the NRF's projected top 10 trends for the holidays, click here to read the organization's blog.

Some of the trends that I think are most interesting from this list are that greeting card spending is expected to be steady this year, alongside purchases of candy and food (including restaurant gift cards and gift certificates).

Also, 11 percent of people say they will buy Christmas gifts at thrift stores or resale shops. This is a new and obviously important category in the consumer survey this year, according to the NRF.

The cupcake craze continues.

Yesterday, I noticed the beginnings of a bakery business in the Grandin Village area, inside the former location of Coda, a coffee shop, on Grandin Road in Roanoke.

The shop, called Viva La Cupcake, opens today, according to an email that I received from owner,  Pennie Ahuero. Here's a link to the Viva La Cupcake Web site. The new shop specializes in catering for special events, but it also serves individual cupcakes and beverages, such as coffee and milk.

Once I find out some more details about this new cupcake enterprise, I'll pass them along to you.

Viva La Cupcake arrives just as the owner of Bubblecake, another local cupcake shop, said that she will be opening a second location in downtown Roanoke.

The incentives are rising for shoppers who refuse to use plastic bags.

Target and CVS have joined the small number of retailers nationwide that are offering slight savings on your bill if you use reusable sacks, rather than plastic bags, according to this story. Environmental groups claim that plastic bags are harmful for the environment.

Starting Nov. 1, Target will give you a 5-cent discount for every reusable bag that you use to pack your purchases at its stores across the country.

Also at CVS stores, you can earn Extra Buck savings when you scan a special green leaf tag and your CVS card. The green tags are supposed to be attached to a cloth bag or a similar sack. After four scans, CVS will give you a $1 Extra Buck coupon.

But you have to pay 99 cents to get this green leaf tag.

CVS is launching this program at 7,000 drug stores throughout the next three weeks.

What's your take on these programs? Will you take advantage of these small discounts for toting your own bags to the store?

Gift card shoppers, pay attention to some of the new ways that retailers will market and promote these handy plastic cards this holiday season. From Target to Best Buy, you'll find some pretty unique promotions tied to gift cards, according to this Wall Street Journal story.

These special offers are one way that retailers are trying to get consumers into stores for other purchases in the next few months.

Those of you who are still trying to decide on your Halloween costume or one for your children may want to consider Spirit Halloween. This all-Halloween shop claims to be the largest retailer of costumes and decorations in the country. It has set up a Roanoke headquarters in the former Circuit City space off Valley View Boulevard.

The store is taking up about half of this big box space. Spirit Halloween, a temporary retailer, will close several days after Oct. 31.

With Halloween falling on a Saturday this year, retailers are expecting to rake in the sales. Spirit Halloween says that Halloween-related retail sales typically are 30 percent higher when Oct. 31 falls on a weekend day.

Apparently, Michael Jackson, Transformers and super heros are the hot costumes this year, according to this story.

The beginnings of a new beauty salon are emerging on Market Street in downtown Roanoke. There's some remodeling work going on behind covered windows at the former spot of a candy store, Good Things on the Market, at 212 Market St.

Roanoke-based handbag designer and retailer, Claire V.,is leasing this space, and it appears that plans are moving forward for its newest concept, Polished by Claire V.

A sign posted to the window of this storefront reveals a price list for services that will be offered at this new salon.

They include 15-minute massages for $20, 60-minute massages for $55 and $10 manicures.

Polished by Claire V. also will offer private parties, according to this list.

I don't have more details about this new salon business, but I'll let you know when I do.

Claire V. shares retail space for its handbag sales with Twist & Turns on Campbell Avenue in downtown Roanoke. Claire V.'s wholesale offices are located on the second floor of the building at 128 and 132 E. Campbell Aves.

Starting today through its closing on Oct. 24, Ukrop's Super Market in Roanoke is discounting the price of all food and other merchandise by 20 percent.

The sale excludes gift cards and postage, said store manager, Manny Derderian. Jason Woodcock, the former store manager, has left the grocery company, he said.

The Roanoke Ukrop's also now closes early each day, at 7 p.m.

A Roanoke cupcake shop is expanding, after only several months in business.

Lisa Lusk is making plans to open a second location for her South Roanoke cupcake eatery, Bubblecake. She's taking her sweet cupcake creations in all kinds of flavors to a small retail space at 16 W. Kirk Ave. in downtown Roanoke.

Success in South Roanoke has led Lusk to pursue a second venture in downtown, which she will call Bubblecake Cupcakes & Coffee. Lusk plans to bake her cupcakes in South Roanoke and do the finishing work in the Kirk Avenue space.

Business is hopping at her South Roanoke shop, where Lusk said she sells 600 to 1500 cupcakes a day.

Lusk told me that she chose a second location to cater to the downtown Roanoke office crowd. Often, downtown employees come to her South Roanoke shop on Crystal Spring Avenue for a sweet treat after lunch.

Lusk wants to be closer to this crowd of loyal customers. She's also hoping to make cupcake deliveries to downtown offices.

Demographically, 92 percent of Bubblecake's customers are women between 25 and 40 years old, she said.

Expect more focus on coffee offerings at the new Bubblecake shop, along with cupcakes, of course.

And look for Lusk's newest Bubblecake to open sometime in November.