Shopping

So there he was, the president of the United States, preparing to lead by example, offering to show us the way out of our economic morass. It was the day after Thanksgiving. The president had come to Frederick, Md., to go to the mall. It was a typical middle-income, middle-class mall, filled with Foot Lockers and Radio Shacks, Thom McAns and Fashion Bugs. The president headed straight for J.C. Penney. He bought four pairs of tube socks and a toddler's sweat suit. He paid $28. None of the accounts I read mention whether he paid in cash or with a credit card.

Tomorrow is Black Friday, traditionally the busiest day of the Christmas gift-shopping season. Despite the economic uncertainty, shoppers this year have decided to carry on the Christmas gift-giving tradition - with a few adjustments. Local retailers and shoppers say people with money are shopping earlier, taking advantage of sales, buying fewer items and becoming more discerning about the quality of their purchases. Those without jobs or little money, they say, are shopping later and taking advantage of retail discounts.

A township developer will proceed with plans for a small shopping complex at Heacock and Yardley-Langhorne Roads. Township developer William Mignoni said he hoped to build a 16,000-square- foot shopping center on his 2.67-acre parcel. His two lots on the tract are zoned for commercial use. Mignoni's property is adjacent to nearly three acres of township-owned land used as a community soccer field. The supervisors, at a Monday night meeting, showed little interest in a resident's proposal for swapping the township tract for Mignoni's property.

Local businessman Sam Marrazzo says the "shopping village" he wants to build in Washington Crossing is tastefully designed, in keeping with the historic area, in compliance with all zoning requirements - and will bring much-needed services to the community. But local residents, who bitterly oppose Marrazzo's plans, say they moved to Upper Makefield precisely to get away from the kind of commercial center he proposes to build. The two sides will face off tonight at 8 when Marrazzo returns to the township Planning Commission hoping to get approval for his preliminary plans for Washington Village.

East Brandywine is a picturesque township where the rustic country flavor blends into the fabric of suburbia. Townhouses, ranch houses, old houses and new houses are interspersed among grassy fields, walking trails and fishing spots. But even so, townsfolk don't have to go far to find what they need. A homeowner can buy groceries, pick up a video, eat at an Italian restaurant, get the dry cleaning and buy a bouquet of flowers - all without leaving town. In East Brandywine, neighborhoods are the center of township life.

Here it is, the countdown to Christmas, and I'm feeling more like the Grinch than a jolly old elf. It's not digging in the attic for the dusty decorations that has me in a tizzy, nor is it the sound of bell-ringing kettle-keepers. The horror that makes my heart race and brow sweat is the task of shopping. No ordinary shopping is this seasonal foray, no leisurely strolling through empty aisles or flitting from store to store to compare prices. This is madness. And I stink at it. Inevitably, I end up buying three times as much as I want because I can't make up my mind, I can't figure out what size will fit, I've found a cheaper price for something that I bought in a panic weeks earlier, or all of the above.

It all began because JoAnn Winzinger wanted to spruce up the neighborhood behind her daughter's bakery. But what started in 1994 as renovations to a few dilapidated buildings in this town's oldest community has grown into a project, a seven-store "village" known as Mill Race. Early this year, two more specialty shops are scheduled to join the shopping district near White and Church Streets, which also includes the bakery and a few residences. Eight multistory homes and a garage are being repaired for use as retail or apartment space by 2000.

Kira Prgovski needs to go shopping, but she doesn't have much in the way of money. What she does have is two bags of powdered milk donated by a humanitarian organization. In an economy hobbled by war, just about anything becomes a commodity that can be sold or bartered for more desirable goods. So 28-year-old Kira leaves her 7-week-old son at home with his father, throws the powdered milk in her shopping bag and ventures to the Markale - the indoor hall where a black market thrives.

Sometimes Christmas shopping comes down to 60 minutes. The lunch hour. The hour between trains. The hour between day-care departure and dinner. The hour before the curtain goes up. Get it done; go have fun. This week, the Neighborhood Strip Shopper does 60 minutes in Center City, with the vendors and bargain shops. You've got an hour for lunch and a gift list as long as an escalator at Strawbridge & Clothier. But you don't feel like weaving through packs of battle-hardened shoppers with credit-card eyes.

Never has it been more true that Gallery at Market East is the center of everything. It sits smack in the middle of an orgy of new investment on East Market Street - east of a phalanx of new hotels, west of a proposed $200 million re-do of Independence Mall, and north of possible new projects like DisneyQuest, Macy's and Nordstrom department stores. But while the four-story, four-block, 170-store complex was a dazzle in its day - striking a blow when it opened in 1977 to those who said urban retail in America was dead - its reign as the glamorous new kid on the block has since fizzled.