Retailer Kohl's Corp. (NYSE:KSS) has just announced that its November same-store sales rose 3.7% from last year on the back of stronger sales in run-up to the holiday shopping season.

Kohl's CEO Larry Montgomery stated that company management had expected comparable-store sales to rise 2 to 4 percent in November, so Kohl's fell right into that projected range with its results. Sales totaled $1.68 billion in November, which was up 12.4% compared with $1.49 billion in the same month a year ago.

So far this year, the chain's sales have totaled $11.8 billion, which is up 15.1% compared with $10.2 billion in 2005. I think Kohl's concept of having the "department store outside the mall" is fantastic and most likely the chain will continue to see growth as people in the suburbs continue to embrace it.

The mall store outside the mall -- Kohl's Corp.(NYSE:KSS)-- is set to do battle with J.C. Penney Co. (NYSE:JSP) this holiday season. The fight has already begun, of course, as last Friday -- a week ago today -- set off the retail buying frenzy headed into such holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

Who is winning? Well, both retailers seem to be marketing directly to the moderate-income shopper now more than ever as all dollars are up for grabs. While Kohl's stores are more keen on suburbanites than city dwellers (it's location strategy echoes this), J.C. Penney still sticks to the larger malls and the traffic patterns that emerge from mass visitations from paying shoppers.

While some think that Macy's and Dillard's are just too expensive, retailers like Kohl's and Penney's continue to recruit -- and keep -- those shoppers who feel like they need very good quality and a pleasant shopping experience, but who don't want the higher prices of the expensive department stores in the mall.

Where do Kohl's and Penney's sit in the minds of consumers? Above Wal-Mart and Target but below Dillard's and Macy's, that's where.

Illegal drawstrings sounds like a line from an old-time Western, but retailer J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) probably wasn't amused after recently agreeing to settle out of court for $350,000 amid allegations that it sold children's clothes with "illegal drawstrings." I guess Wisconsin is the only state with this law so far.

The infringement came after Penney's sold children's hooded sweatshirts with drawstrings around the neck in the fall of 2005. Penney's, however, immediately removed the sweatshirts and cooperated with a manufacturer's voluntary recall with the U.S. Consumer Protection Safety Commission. Upon settling the case, the retailer made no admission that it violated the law.

Apparently, Wisconsin was the first state to make children's drawstrings illegal, although a voluntary standard is in place nationally. The Wisconsin ban is supported by state chapters of the Safe Kids Coalition -- an organization I support due to the fact that it stringently looks after the best interests of all children.

The U.S Consumer Protection Safety Commission received reports of 22 deaths and 48 non-fatal incidents involving the entanglement of children's clothing drawstrings from the period of 1985 to 1999, so making drawstrings illegal perhaps is not a bad idea after all. This case will possibly make clothing manufacturers get innovative in the design process again.

We are now less than two weeks away from Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the busiest shopping day of the year. That day and the ensuing weekend set the tone for the entire holiday shopping season and every major retailer does its best to get its cash registers ringing with major sales that day.

This year, perhaps to earn status as the ultimate bargain mecca of choice, retailers are starting to offer deals early. But if you enjoy the frenzy and don't mind getting up at 5 a.m. to wait in line like a teenager waiting for tickets for a Nickelback concert, you may grab the best bargains a week from Friday.

To help you map out a strategy, I've studied retailers' web sites as well as Black Friday rumor sites like GottaDeal's Black Friday site, blackfridayads.com and bfads.net to see what bargains can be found. I'm mainly focusing on categories like toys and electronics at retailers like Amazon.com, Kohl's, Wal-Mart, J.C. Penneys, Target, Circuit City and Best Buy.

Ready to whet your whistle? Here are some of the "early hooks" and upcoming deals retailers have in store:

Retailer J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) reported excellent third-quarter results yesterday, as it posted net income of $287 million, an increase of 22.6% from $234 million in the prior year. Earnings per share climbed 34% to $1.26, based on 227.6 million shares outstanding, from $0.94, based on 248.6 million shares in the year-ago same quarter.

Analysts had expected earnings of $1.22 per share in the quarter. J.C. Penney easily beat analysts' consensus as well as its own guidance of $1.22 earnings per share. J.C. Penney's income from continuing operations increased 22.2% year-over-year to $286 million and income tax expenses in Q3 climbed 38.9% to $182 million from $131 million a year ago.

The sales figure in J.C. Penney's latest quarter rose 6.7% to come in at $4.78 billion from the year-ago quarterly figure of $4.48 billion. The $4.78 billion figure also beat analysts' revenue estimate of $4.75 billion. In addition to overall revenue, total department store sales increased 7.0%, compared to a 3.0% rise last year.

In what I saw as pretty encouraging was the fact that Internet sales from J.C. Penney's website grew at a 27% rate in the third quarter. I guess not everyone is shopping at Amazon.com.

With the under-20 crowd having loads of spurious cash to spend, specialty retailers like Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) and Hot Topic, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOTT) have met this need by giving a lifestyle image to the products they sell fitting the demographic that they're trying to court. No big surprise here; both are decent, targeted business models that have had ups and downs in sales recently, but that continue to feed to distinct and custom needs of the young shopper these days.

What about J.C. Penney's or Kohl's, though? Would a 16-year-old be found shopping there? For quite a while, traditional department stores have been viewed as stodgy and irrelevant by the young shopper set -- and that's caused relevant sales to be on a steady decline for more than a decade. Who is trying to re-ignite that sales passion these days, though?

Old names like J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) and Kohl's Corporation (NYSE:KSS) have been taking a page from their upstart competitors by launching edgy advertising and adding clothing and furniture lines that appeal to the young trendsetters who have money to spend. The newer and energized strategies are seeing success as well, as department store sales surged 8.4% in September 2006 -- the fastest pace since January 1997.

Will the tried-and-true department store angle be able to faithfully serve its long-term customer base while recruiting more and more younger shoppers from the specialty retailers by using edgier and more gripping marketing? Maybe so -- this holiday's shopping season will most likely show the result. Let's check back in January.