Shopping

In a post-Thanksgiving ritual, throngs of people crowded stores yesterday in the first binge of holiday shopping. At Strawbridge & Clothier's Center City store, Danielle Tippy, 3, of the Northeast, came eye to eye with a display-case doll, above. Santa Claus was handing out reindeer hats at the Gallery; Linda Mrak's niece refused to wear hers, so the Northeast woman donned it herself, at right. But it was Santa himself who held children fascinated, parents in lines and, in his red-suited arms, Jesse Miller, 4, below.

Salt. Pepper. Grass. Green. University City. Shopping. Shopping? Given the West Philadelphia neighborhood's rash of highly publicized crime in recent months - capped by the Halloween stabbing death of Vladimir Sled, a University of Pennsylvania research scientist - shopping may not be the first thing folks think of when they think about University City. But the neighborhood surrounding the Penn campus is full of shops and restaurants. With the holidays coming, Penn and area merchants have announced "Steppin' Out Nites.

Enter the glass doors and the shopping hormones start bubbling, the heart beat quickens, the thoughts practically scream through slacken jaws and drooling mouths. I want. I want. I want everything I ever wanted. And then some. Welcome to the King of Prussia shopping mall, where just about everything that can be bought in life is sold. All the big name stores are here. Macy's. Bloomies. Wanamaker's. Ann Taylor. Stern's. Brooks Brothers. Conran's. J.C. Penney.

Even though the shop-'til-you-drop lifestyle is rampant in a consumer society, few people would regard shopping for an electricity supplier as their idea of retail therapy. But lately, the state's top utility regulator has been talking about forcing every Pennsylvania electricity customer to do just that: pick from among a possibly bewildering number of power suppliers. Concerned that only about one in five customers in the Philadelphia region has broken away from the Peco Energy Co. mother ship as his or her power supplier, state Public Utility Commission Chairman Robert F. Powelson has suggested the state revamp the rules to make shopping mandatory.

There are few things the Guerrilla Gourmet likes better than dining, and one of them is shopping. So when the new Shops at Liberty Place opened, with its heady array of retail and a food court called the Buffet to boot, the lure was irresistible. Choosing among the 14 stands was not easy. The vendors include Bain's Deli, Bassett's Original Turkey, Chick-fil-A, Everything Yogurt and Sbarro, plus purveyors of sushi, Mexican, gyros, Chinese and cheesesteaks. The best thing to do is wander and pick what looks freshest, which can vary depending on the time of day. Late one weekday afternoon - 4:10 p.m. to be exact - the pizza at Montesini Pizza and Ristorante still looked inviting, even though lunchtime was long past.

The TV weather map shows smiling raindrops and a cheery sun peeking out from behind thunderbolts, but that's not what's outside my door. Here at the Shore, it's cloudy and cool; the sun is on vacation. No one is eager to get to the beach, and because the food level in my house drops as fast as the barometric pressure, I use the morning hours to get groceries. Two hundred dollars later, the pantry is stocked, and the lousy weather shows no signs of disappearing. We eat lunch and snack our way through a puzzle, two games of Pictionary, and a 007 movie.

It was an exclusive shopping party of sorts at area Clover stores on Sunday evening. Only senior citizens and people with disabilities were invited. In the Feasterville store, Girl Scouts caroled through the aisles, and singer Dean Garofolo, 27, belted out Christmas tunes over a microphone at the store entrance. Shoppers picked up free cookies, brownies and coffee along with the bargains they put in their carts. The 25 area Clover stores offered a storewide discount of 10 percent to its senior and disabled shoppers and gave them a coupon book with deeper discounts on such items as clothes, watches, jewelry and perfume.

The shopping season is over. In the NFL, the days from Feb. 15, when free agency begins, to the first couple of weeks of training camp, in essence, constitute the shopping season. It is a time when teams seek the best talent to serve their needs. This shopping season, the Eagles wanted to upgrade their defensive line, offensive line, special teams, wide receiving corps, defensive backfield and, if possible, linebacker position. Fortified with the best salary-cap situation in the league, they went shopping.

Jenny Martin, owner of Jenny's Vintage in the South Street Antiques Market, offers her RTF shopping list (supplemented with a few trends we spotted from the fall shows earlier this year). Start looking now - stores are stocking for fall. Below-the-knee- or at-the-knee-length skirts. "But not too long," says Martin. A-lines are great, too. A little ruffle, or a lace applique on cardigans or tops. Slits or vents in skirts. "Not too high, or you get trashy," Martin warns.

A quarter of a century after Betty Friedan ignited the feminist movement with The Feminine Mystique, women are still doing almost all the cooking and grocery shopping, according to an extensive survey conducted by the New York Times. Responses from 1,870 people, interviewed by telephone, showed that even though more women are in the work force, have less time at home and have been campaigning to get their husbands to share household chores, they are still the ones who pay attention to how, when, what and where their families eat. Among married couples questioned, only 18 percent of the men said they did the main food shopping for the family.

Not every day at the Jersey Shore can be 80 and sunny. That's when it's time to explore the alternate universe: shopping. You could head for the Atlantic City outlets, but you'd be missing out on the novel spots that dot the coast. Here are my favorites, in a handful of Shore towns: Ocean City has two main shopping hubs. The first, obviously, is the boardwalk, lined with T-shirt stores, eateries, rides, and mini-golf courses. Three stores to hit: The Islander , which sells quality women's fashions geared to 20- to 30-year-olds, plus some men's items and home accents; Air Circus , with every kind of kite imaginable (easy to spot from anywhere on the boardwalk since kites usually are flying on the beach in front of the store)

Like most teenage girls, 17-year-old Madelyn Rosario is enamored with this spring's prom dresses. She loves the trendy princess gowns and body-skimming mermaid frocks made popular on this year's red carpets by the super-slim Miley Cyruses and Taylor Swifts. But at 5-foot-3 and 170 pounds, Rosario is a confident, well-dressed teen - who is a solid size 14. In the discriminating world of fashion, that qualifies her as plus-size. "Up until now, this is the biggest night of my life," said the Pennsauken High School junior.

LAST MONTH, The Daily Meal proclaimed Ultimo Coffee "America's Best Coffee Shop. " To do so, the website had a panel of experts vote on "nearly 150 shops from coast to coast," it said, to seek out the best java, "food, atmosphere, customer service and the 'unique' factor. " Like some other top raters, Ultimo uses minimalist, beaker-looking, 3-cup Chemex pots to make morning batches. After 11 a.m., the Philly shops brew one cup at a time in ceramic Bee Drippers. Top-of-the-line La Marzocco machines create Ultimo's espresso and espresso drinks.

GALLOWAY, N.J. - Since she won the 2012 ShopRite LPGA Classic, Stacy Lewis has been making history. She was the first U.S. player in 18 years to win LPGA player of the year and only the second American to be No. 1 since the women's world rankings were introduced in 2006. Note the key word here: American. Despite the presence of outstanding players from the United States such as Juli Inkster, Cristie Kerr, and Paula Creamer, Americans had been shut out of the top for quite some time until Lewis, 28, ascended.

MOST PEOPLE think of ice cream as a treat, something to be enjoyed once in a while. But Cedar Park resident Morgan Andrews readily admits that he indulges a bit more often. "I limit myself to once a day," Andrews reasoned. The culprit is Little Baby's Ice Cream, the handmade premium ice-cream company, which opened a new location on Catharine Street near 49th less than two weeks ago. The company features an assortment of wild and daring flavors - including pizza and chocolate teriyaki - but also offers vegan and nondairy options.

What is it? Philly's first Hawaiian-themed food truck, operated by island expat Kiki Aranita and her partner, Chris Vacca. The duo took the lessons they learned while slinging hash at Foo Truck and added a Pacific twist, plating delicacies hard to find outside the 50th state. Aloha, lunch crowd: The food cart, named after a now-extinct breed of dog native to Hawaii, debuted early last month, setting up an exclusive residency at 13th and Montgomery, smack dab in the heart of Temple's campus.

How has the recovery process from Superstorm Sandy gone for you and your family? Share your story with the Daily News at ph.ly/SandyStories . BRIGANTINE, N.J. - In her little shop at North Point Marina, Donna Vanzant stocks clam rakes and boat anchors, tide charts and neon fishing lures, and an assortment of bug sprays that probably don't keep this island community's infamous greenhead flies at bay. But the one thing you'd expect...

  Heidi Tirjan's schedule was packed. There were visits to a new bakery and a soon-to-open bookshop in Bryn Mawr, then off to Philadelphia to drop in on a couple of chic Northern Liberties retailers she thought should launch outlets in Lower Merion. She also found time to revel in a luscious victory: persuading the owners of the highly regarded Philadelphia restaurant Melograno to open another eatery on the Main Line. After years of wooing, Rosemarie Tran and Gianluca Demontis had succumbed to Tirjan's blandishments and their own desire, and are putting the finishing touches on Fraschetta, a restaurant they are opening near the Bryn Mawr Film Institute.

Nicholas Papanier, 57, owner of PrimoHoagies Franchising Inc., was in federal court in Camden two weeks ago, pleading guilty to tax evasion stemming from taxes he owed on hoagie shop operators' cash payments to him for salami, ham, and other deli ingredients. This week, his company was back in Camden's federal courthouse, having filed a lawsuit against one of its shop operators. The suit, filed Tuesday, says Jay Venito of Mount Laurel agreed in January 2011 to run a PrimoHoagie store on Route 38 in Lumberton.

John Reece hasn't figured out a way to deliver his latest ice cream creations directly through the Internet, so he relies on Facebook to give his customers a taste. "Beautiful day here in the Philly area," Reece wrote this fall on the page he has created for his Exton and West Chester shops. "Time to enjoy some Scooped Ice Cream. Our new flavors in stock: Pistachio, Mocha Toffee, Pumpkin Pie. " Through the computer screen, Reece has the ability to make customers feel as if they're enjoying a free waffle cone on the front stoop of Scooped, his homemade ice cream, gelato and sorbet business - even before they've left the house.