Shoppers at the Kohl’s Department Store in Sussex, Wis., have been treated to a sneak peek at the coming season: Christmas decorations throughout the store, a trim-the-tree shop, and holiday merchandise stacked on table displays in the aisles.

“Everyone asks about it,’’ said a clerk in the cosmetics department at the front of the store. But most of the garland will come down as fast as it went up.

The store serves as a sort of learning laboratory for Kohl’s Corp., which is headquartered in nearby Menomonee Falls, Wis. Three times a year, for spring, back-to-school and Christmas, the company sets up the store months ahead of schedule and stocks it with merchandise for the coming season.

This week, 100 district and regional managers from all across the country gathered at the store for lessons and pep talks about Kohl’s strategy for the 2007 holiday season.

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