Retailers Wary as Yule Shoppers Line Up : Season: Many are expected to browse rather than buy this weekend--thanks to the troubled economy and gulf crisis.

Shoppers lined up early, some of them in the rain, for today’s unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season, which retailers are viewing uneasily amid the troubled economy and the gulf crisis.

“There are three things you can count on: death, taxes and a big day after Thanksgiving,” said Steve Podalsky, manager of the Marshall’s department store at Sawgrass Mills, a discount shopping mall in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Podalsky said the newness of the mall, which opened in October, and the appeal of discount shopping have gotten the store off to a start “beyond our expectations. It’s as if there’s nothing wrong with the economy.”

But most retailers don’t expect business to boom, not with the flagging economy and the Middle East crisis. Many shoppers are expected to browse, not buy, this weekend.

Phil Sawyer, manager of a J. C. Penney branch in Richmond, Va., predicted that sales will slack off after a burst of buying today, similar to the business his store had during a previous economic slowdown.

Wanda McNamara of New Cumberland, Pa., said today that she has not been personally threatened with layoffs or loss of income. Still, she is taking the recession talk seriously, and this shopping season will be different for her.

“I’m watching my dollars,” she said this morning while waiting for Boscov’s Department Store to open in Harrisburg, Pa. “I’m more careful, more selective. I’m looking for sales. I’m cutting down on the Christmas list. I don’t want to overcharge too much.”

Stores generally make half their annual profits during the Christmas season. The Thanksgiving weekend isn’t quite as crucial for retailers as it once was, though.

Shoppers setting out after getting their fill of turkey and football games used to give retailers their biggest three-day take and set the tone for the rest of the Christmas period. But in recent years, as more women joined the work force, consumers have been shopping later and later.

Now, the last 10 days before Christmas matter most--although Thanksgiving weekend sales help determine retailers’ strategy for the rest of the season.