Reggie Mayfield has been telling stories about his father's department store — stories about how monsters roam it after midnight. Determined to prove he's lying, you decide to visit overnight, and discover the stories are true, with a different scare on every floor.
Shop Till You Drop... Dead! provides examples of:
- Animorphism: Julie reading the second half of a spell first by accident causes you to transform into an ape.
- Bland-Name Product: You and Julie borrow "Splotch" (Swatch) watches to time yourselves during a bet.
- Covers Always Lie: The book describes Reggie Mayfield's monster form as orange-furred, but on the front cover, he's purple. The video game Goosebumps HorrorTown which has Reggie as a supporting character appears to follow the cover illustration instead of the text, with Reggie depicted as purple as well.
- Didn't Think This Through: During the final confrontation, in one scenario, you and Julie get your hands tangled by the heart attack backpack, and your mutated friend Reggie is marching towards you, ready to devour you. Your options are either to attack him, or stall him until 1 AM (when he'll change back as a human). If you choose to fight, Julie simply asks "how are we supposed to fight if our hands are caught in this stupid backpack?!" The book then remarks, "Good question. Too bad you don't have a good answer!" Cue Reggie devouring you two.
- Evil Elevator: There's one in the mall you have to escape.
- Inventory Management Puzzle: The scavenger hunt path has you going through floors two through six, and acquire as many items as possible before hitting floor seven, the final showdown. Skipping some floors or doing some actions wrong causes you to grab some weaker replacement items — or not acquiring some items at all, which affects the final confrontation. Also, going through the scavenger hunt in the wrong order may get you killed in other floors, since you need those items to survive. On floor seven, at one point the books asks you if you have one item or the other. It's possible to have none of them, but that option isn't included on that page.
- Joker Jury: In one ending you are put on trial by Murderous Mannequins and you're found not guilty, so they turn you and Julie into mannequins.
- Living Statue: Close enough, but the mannequins in the store comes to life at night.
- Living Toy: The toy department contains a human-sized toy monkey that comes to life on it's own. You can befriend it during the adventure, where it will help you survive the night.
- Mechanical Animals: Dr. Sheila Mayfield creates horrific robot/animal hybrids with the intent of launching a new line of toys.
- Moon Logic Puzzle: At one point you can be captured inside a store by mannequin security guards, who put you on "trial" and ask whether you plead Guilty or Not Guilty. Pick Not Guilty, and the mannequins "reward" your innocence … by turning you into a mannequin just like them. Pleading Guilty, on the other hand, leads to them "punishing" you with the worst thing they can imagine: banishing you from the deadly, haunted department store you're trying to escape from .
- Murderous Mannequin: In one ending you are attacked by some mannequins. Julie manages to escape but it's implied you're dismembered by the mannequins. In another ending you are put on trial by mannequins and you're found not guilty, so they turn you and Julie into mannequins.
- Our Werebeasts Are Different: Reggie Mayfield, who got you into this mess in the first place, is actually some sort of purple-furred were-monster who reveals his true monstrous form at midnight. And somehow he still have the same amount of sentience as he was as a human.
- Paranormal Mundane Item: In one path, the protagonists are on a Scavenger Hunt to find a number of items in a night department store. Goods found in this store include among the rest a Heart-Attack Backpack that suffocates people until they have a heart attack, and a toy ape that comes to life at night.
- Red Herring: The baby booties from floor 4 are the one item that can be skipped without locking you out of any good endings. The Poisonous Perfume from floor 2 and the Heart-Attack Backpack from floor 3 can be used as weapons in the final showdown, the silver arrow from floor 5 is necessary to get the Heart-Attack Backpack safely, the scroll from floor 5 is necessary in one path of the final showdown, and the Volcano Steam from floor 6 affects which path of the final showdown you end up on. The baby booties can only be used on one page, and using them leads you to a bad ending.
- Schrödinger's Gun: The monster that awaits you on the seventh floor can be either a toy ape that comes to life at midnight or...your friend Reggie who turns into a monster at midnight.
- Taken for Granite: Two endings turn you into a mannequin and a cardboard cutout.
- Werewolves Are Dogs: The vampire night guard of the department store uses a werewolf as his guard dog. Also, in one bad ending, you are bitten by the werewolf and turn into a werewolf. You then bite Julie and she turns too. You are both then forced to be watch dogs for the store forever.
