Black Friday is only a few days away, and in addition to the numerous pre-sales and Thanksgiving Day discounts going on, many smaller or niche stores are sharing their Black Friday deals with us; before they hit your Wednesday newspaper.

Of note today are deals from Bare Necessities, Victoria's Secret, T-Mobile, Amazon, and Pet Supplies Plus.

Lingerie:
Bare Necessities is currently running pre-Black Friday deals including, bra sales on Tuesday and steals starting at $9.99 on Wednesday. On Black Friday you'll be able to find discounts on Nautica flannel drawstring pants, slips, bras and panties starting at just $9.

Is the personal check on its way out?

The Dallas Morning News recently suggested that -- and, no, they aren't the first to suggest it, nor will they be the last -- but they point out that several stores lately have made it their policy to refuse personal paper checks: Diesel, True Religion, Ed Hardy and Lululemon Athletica, which are all clothing stores. And maybe there's something in the water, since the clothing giant Gap is also exploring the concept of no longer accepting personal checks.

My WalletPop colleague Martha C. White has also written about Whole Foods no longer accepting checks in some stores, as part of a get-rid-of-checks experiment.

T-Mobile is restarting its Sidekick sales again after last month's data loss that permanently left its customers without photos, contacts or information.

The only trouble was that a day after T-Mobile began selling its beleaguered product at a reduced price, it was reported that its UK staff was selling off customer information to the highest outside bidder. Severe data loss vs. security breach by employees ... which is worse?

At this point, does it matter? T-Mobile, which is using Microsoft's Danger for Sidekick technology and data services, can't shift the blame on Microsoft for this recent security breach. Instead, it was solely the work of T-Mobile employees destroying customer trust.

So even if T-Mobile is offering the Sidekick 2008 for $49 and the Sidekick LX 2009 for $149 (down $50 and $30 respectively from last month) with a two-year contract, it may not be worth it to consumers who have lost confidence in the company and can't trust their data won't be lost or stolen.

Customer service is the cornerstone of a retail business. So could the vending machine industry really make people more easily give their money to a machine rather than a person with a friendly smile?

The secret lies in technology and convenience, according to the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA), which represents the vending machine industry.

With gas prices and the recession not sparing even this $30 billion segment of the retail market, vending merchants are looking at swanky machines that dispense everything from deep-dish pizzas to prescription drugs to nab more customers.

Around my house, we don't make the decision to pile into the car and head over to our local Cineplex as easily as we once did. It costs a lot of money these days to see talking animals, wild things and giant meatballs falling from the sky -- and don't get me started on the popcorn.

Going to see the latest kid's film use to be a no-brainer and if the adults slept through it, well, it didn't really matter, but no more. When a family of four has to pay a total of $40.50 to see a "regular" movie, or $56.50 to see that movie in digital 3D, or splurges to see that same movie in digital 3D playing on the "giant" IMAX screen for a whopping $60.50, it suddenly becomes very important that everyone is at least mildly amused or entertained.

To buy tickets to all of the new movies coming out would cost literally hundreds of dollars, and if you throw in drinks and snacks -- there goes college. How to find one that's family-friendly and worth the expense?

Movie reviews for kids are not new, but they are getting increasingly relevant as families demand more of a sure-bet for their entertainment budget. It's impossible to promise that everyone will like a movie, but if you know who to listen to there will be more hits than misses.

Most of the websites are free, such as Kids-in-Mind., Commonsensemedia, Parentpreviews, and Moviemom.

The Walmart Black Friday ad leaked out to many deal collecting sites earlier this week, but until yesterday they kept it offline under threat of legal action by the mega retailer. After the OK was finally given, the entire Walmart Black Friday ad has been posted and it contains a lot of deals. Best of all, you won't have to wait outside for any of the savings since Walmart will be open all night over Thanksgiving -- although you will have to wait until 5 a.m. to make your purchases.

Walmart's biggest Black Friday deals:

If you are spending less on shopping this Black Friday you're not alone. A recent survey performed by Dealnews.com found that a quarter of shoppers are planning to spend less on Black Friday.

The survey further found that fewer people will be shopping on Black Friday as a whole and that women shop for other people on Black Friday, whereas men shop for themselves.

It's no shocker that men do more shopping on themselves on Black Friday, since I know few fellows who would brave a Black Friday crowded for anyone other than themselves.

With Black Friday almost here and Cyber Monday just around the corner, there's no denying that the holiday season is upon us; and for many people that means online shopping. For Identity Thieves and scammers, though, this is the time of year to roll out new ways of going after your identity, your money and your credit.

WalletPop has already warned you about the numerous ways that online scam artists are trying to dupe you with fakes, but we wanted to make sure that you are as educated as you can be when it comes to safeguarding your information and money. We went to three industry experts to find out how to stay safe on Cyber Monday and through the rest of your holiday shopping.

To get a better idea of just how much phishing and identity theft scams will increase in the next month, we spoke to Lyn Oakes, Chief Marketing Officer of Trusted ID.

"We do expect that there will be more traffic being generated by identity thieves because of the holiday season than has been in the last several months," Oakes said in a phone interview. "We think phishing emails are going to rise."

Looking back at my childhood during the 1990s, I now realize that the Internet and I have a pretty good relationship – we grew up together.

As trite as this may sound, the Internet targeted everyone, but more specifically generation Y. I remember rushing home from school to plug the modem into the phone jack, creating a dead line that blocked all incoming phone calls, all to get connected to the Internet.

I lived for that free flow of information and connectivity to the world outside of my enclosed bedroom. That AOL voice that said 'Welcome' opened the doors to a central nucleus in which I was granted access to everyone from around the world at my fingertips.

The good thing was that it was all free. Even as a child, I understood that these "free" Web sites made money from those pop-up and banner ads that appeared everywhere. I knew that I was being targeted by outside companies, but I understood the value of the Internet, and continued to log on and participate.

Popular and boisterous tech blog Boy Genius Report this week ran what one of their contacts claimed to be Apple's Black Friday ad. The ad claimed that Apple would be going against tradition and offering huge cuts across the Apple lineup.

Just how big were the claimed discounts? The ad claims that Apple will offer up to 30% off of all iPods, up to 25% off of all Macs and up to 15% off of accessories, software and other Mac hardware. Needless to say, these would be big, and I mean BIG, discounts for Apple to pull out on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If they were true, that is.

According to a data mining company, the old adage of being judged by the friends you keep translates easily into the digital friends you keep.

Rapleaf, a social media monitoring company, claims that by analyzing public information such as the friends you have on Twitter it can assess how creditworthy you are and how likely you are to respond to advertising.

Rapleaf monitors public digital conversations and stores away your Twitter and Facebook status updates, restaurant reviews, Amazon book reviews and plenty of other online public information in its database of 378 million profiles to profile you.

Looking to boost your Black Friday budget? SmartyPig is upping its current ante -- offering customers the chance to cash in on a hefty cash bonus this holiday shopping season.

The new bonus offers customers using the on-line piggy bank some extra coin - up to 12% - when they meet their savings goal and shop at one of SmartyPig's retail partners like Macy's, Barnes and Noble and GameStop.

"The holidays can put a financial strain on anybody, and using credit cards for purchases can add to a person's debt 'holiday hangover'," SmartyPig CEO Bob Weinschenk told WalletPop.

The goal-oriented online savings program currently offers a competitive 2.01% (APY). And until Monday, November 17, had also offered the option to add 6% to your savings when shopping at one of SmartyPig's retail partners.

"Now, when customers meet their savings goal, they may be able to earn double the bonus -- 12%," says Weinschenk.

The 12% bonus is applicable to funds withdrawn from accounts that are transferred to retail partner gift cards. "The cards never expire, so they don't have to be spent just on Black Friday or during the holiday season," says Tiffany Spencer, spokeswoman for SmartyPig.

SmartyPig is also rolling out a new added incentive for consumers looking to stash cash for a vacation. Customers can now earn up to a 10% cash bonus when they meet their savings goal and opt to book through one of SmartyPig's retail partners Travelocity or American Airlines.

"Hi. This is Rachel from Cardholder Services." It's safe to say that millions of Americans have received a call from Rachel or one of her robo-calling cohorts at some point. In fact, there have been so many complaints about calls from robo-dialers with pre-recorded announcements that the government has almost entirely banned them.

As of September 1, the Federal Trade Commission barred all prerecorded telemarketing calls unless a consumer gives their written permission to receive them furst. Robo-soliciting over cell phones was already prohibited by the Federal Communications Commission several years ago.

Just don't tell that to Rachel. She doesn't appear to be slowing down -- and, at least for the time being, no one can stop her because it's not clear where she comes from.

Internet telephone provider Vonage agreed to pay $3 million and change how it deals with its customers after reaching a settlement with 32 states.

Among the allegations against Vonage was consumers continuing to be charged after canceling, not clearly disclosing the terms of its "free trial," and not honoring a supposed "money back guarantee." One problem consumers ran into -- something that particularly affected senior citizens -- was the failure to disclose in Vonage's numerous advertisements that having high-speed internet was a requirement to use the service.

When I rent movies, do I devour the DVD extras? Sure, lots of times the audio commentary is just a track of actors and directors waxing important and mostly ignoring the images on the screen, but they can still be dishy and insidery, and for my favorite movies, they can almost make purchasing the DVD worth the money.

Disney DVD knows there are lots of fans like me. For years, it has released its biggest titles in a variety of volumes. There's often a simple one-disc version for people who just want to see the movie without any extras, and maybe a two-disc version loaded up with more outtakes and mini-documentaries.