Shopping

The ShopRite LPGA Classic announced Thursday that the 2013 tournament is scheduled for May 27-June 2 on the Bay Course at Stockton Seaview Hotel & Golf Club in Galloway, N.J. Top women from the Ladies Professional Golf Association will compete for a $1.5 million purse in the 54-hole, LPGA-sanctioned official event. It is scheduled to be televised on the Golf Channel. For more tournament news and information, go to www.ShopRiteLPGAclassic.com .

NASHVILLE - When the Boston Red Sox finalized a three-year deal on Tuesday with Shane Victorino, 32, and fresh off a career-worst season, their winter shopping-spree bill increased to $120.2 million. The Phillies, standing on the periphery of a crazed winter meetings, have spent a total of $850,000. It's not that sticker shock has overcome GM Ruben Amaro Jr. and his lieutenants. "But," Amaro said, "it seems like the price of doing business is getting higher and higher. " So the Phillies are content to watch - for now. Late in the afternoon, Amaro kicked off his shoes, tapped away at his iPhone, and lounged on a couch in the team's suite at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.

Red bows hung on evergreen boughs, white lights twinkled on candy canes, and even Santa and Mrs. Claus strolled by. But for Isaac Gonzalez, 13, it was all a bright blur Sunday morning as he made his way, with help, through the Cherry Hill Target store. "Which one do you like better?" 14-year-old Daniel Nguyen asked, holding up a purple and a pink Minnie Mouse doll as three other teens watched. Isaac, who is nearly blind and ordinarily guides himself with a cane, gazed in Daniel's direction but said nothing.

Check out these smartphone applications for shopping in the holiday season. All are free and have versions for Android and Apple devices. ShopAdvisor , by Evoqu Inc., will ask you to turn on your phone's GPS or enter your zip code and then search for any product. The results you see will indicate online and brick-and-mortar sources, prices, and, in the case of local stores, a map to the nearby locations. For online sources, you may add the product to a virtual shopping cart, or place a call if the selling website has a telephone option.

MOST RETAILERS celebrated Black Friday last weekend, but for a small struggling shop in South Philly, Black Friday was yesterday. Valerie and Phil Cuttino were worried sick that their six-month-old plus-size lingerie boutique, Lovely's Lingerie, wouldn't make it through the month of December. Ever since they'd opened on May 5, foot traffic had been lousy and visits to LovelysLingerie.net, which features provocative undergarments in sizes up to 10X, had only averaged about 200 a day. Even though it's the only store of its kind in the area, the future of Lovely's Lingerie looked bleak.

Check out these smartphone applications for shopping in the holiday season. All are free and have versions for Android and Apple devices. ShopAdvisor , by Evoqu Inc., will ask you to turn on your phone's GPS or enter your zip code and then search for any product. The results you see will indicate online and brick-and-mortar sources, prices, and, in the case of local stores, a map to the nearby locations. For online sources, you may add the product to a virtual shopping cart, or place a call if the selling website has a telephone option.

FROM KMART to Old Navy to Burlington Coat Factory to dozens of stores in between, Philadelphia shoppers Friday swarmed the Gallery at Market East mall, helping Black Friday live up to its name. "Overall, we had a good experience other than trying to keep up with these two. They were constantly weaving between people," Crystal Chavis, 30, said of her daughters, Aliyah, 7, and Giselle, 5. Chavis, a legal assistant from West Philadelphia, and her boyfriend, Kyle Simmons, 35, a construction worker, were loaded down with bags of clothing, shoes and a copy of the best seller Fifty Shades of Grey, by noontime, which was typical of Black Friday shoppers throughout the nation.

Maybe it's the cozy wooden chalets, clustered in cobblestone squares and filled with wooden toys that could have been crafted by elves. Or perhaps it's the likelihood of snow. Then again, it could be the abundance of free-flowing Glühwein, served in ceramic mugs decorated with wintry scenes of horse-drawn sleighs and reindeer. Whatever it might be, Germany's Christmas markets have the recipe for holiday cheer patented, bottled, and served up for conspicuous consumption. An evening spent mingling with the rosy-cheeked crowds in its historic cities could convert the most curmudgeonly Scrooge and the greenest of Grinches into a carol-singing, spiced-wine-swilling, stocking-stuffing seasonal junkie.

By John Hearn We shopped rarely and with forethought and together. Shopping was a social ritual that followed a set procedure. After the tax refund arrived - usually in March, when cold ocean winds still swept the hills south of Boston - my mother gathered the four of us to trek uptown. Each of her three boys would get a pair of trousers, summer sneakers, and a Red Sox cap, all at least a size too big to accommodate growth. She feared outgrown clothes that could not be easily replaced.

Philly seems to have a new holiday tradition. The giant yellow noodle is back in JFK Plaza - Love Park - with the untarping scheduled for today. If it helps, think of it as a collosal yellow smile that funds the nearby holiday tree, instead of a crass pitch for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. "You know you love it," the noodle says, just as it has in other cities, including Philadelphia late last year. Thanksgiving Day, the 60 shops of the annual Christmas Village will open, offering an array of merchandise, including jewelry, ornaments and other arts and crafts, as well as waffles and gingerbread among its "food, drinks and sweets," organizers say. At 2 p.m. Saturday, the village will mark its official grand opening will a visit by the angel known as Christkind, who's flying in from Nuremberg, Germany.