Lazily reclining in front of the cash register at the Shops at Homewood is Andy, a massive, 110-pound Great Pyrenees that looks like he could easily take down a rhinoceros.
Yet for now, Andy seems satisfied to lie peacefully on the floor, taking in the warm rays of a sunny Monday afternoon.
"He's a pretty laid-back dog," says Mardi Brock, who with her mother, Alice, co-owns the Shops at Homewood. "If things get too hectic, he tends to be unhappy."
Feel free, then, to interpret the gargantuan dog as a metaphor for the mom-and-pop (or, in this case, mom-and-daughter) stores in Charles Village. For though he may appear docile and content, Andy's sheer size makes his presence difficult to ignore.
"It has taken me three years to win some trust from the students and the neighbors," says Mardi. "And every time they make progress with this construction, it feels like they chop another two inches off of my legs."
Initially, the Brocks had trouble attracting young people to the Shops at Homewood, which stocks an offbeat selection of stationary, gifts and plants. Since then, Mardi says she has managed to amount a coterie of students who enjoy the store's do-it-yourself flower arrangements.
Thus, the Shops at Homewood--which is, actually, only one shop with a variety of wares--is just one of many family-owned businesses that is staring anxiously into the future of Charles Village.
The construction taking place a stone's throw away from the Shops is expected to bring name-brand shopping into the previously bohemian neighborhood, starting as early as 2006.
"It's hard to stock the store when you don't know when you're moving out," says Alice Brock.
For 19 years, Alice Brock owned and managed Images, a small shop across St. Paul Street from Eddie's, that sold stationary, gifts, coffee, and pastries. Three years ago, Mardi opened the Shops at Homewood--which is right next to Uni Mini, also on St. Paul Street--and in January, Alice decided to close Images and join forces with her daughter down the street. The mother-daughter pair have been very active in the community, and even attended the meetings regarding the Charles Commons construction plans.
"Baltimore is sort of an odd duck town. It's a collection of neighborhoods that are all very different," says Mardi. "But the city is becoming homogenized. It hasn't happened yet, but it's in the works. Every time they develop, they talk about upscale. But where are the upscale people going to come from?"
Both Brocks agree, however, that the neighborhood's pending makeover will be a double-edged sword for local business owners. Though the changes will make Charles Village a more mainstream, commercial neighborhood, it will also bring in more shoppers.
"Pretty soon, a business my size won't be able to do business in this area, says Mardi. "I consider us a neighborhood shop."
"But the new bookstore will certainly make the corner active," adds Alice.
The original concept behind the Shops at Homewood was that it would be three distinct "shops" inside one store--a florist, a stationary store, and a venue for local artists to sell their work. The idea never really panned out, and the three shops simply melded together into a store that offers flowers, gardening supplies, cards, toys, pens, and a variety of other knick-knacks, chachkas, and doodads.
Mardi takes great pleasure in explaining the history of her store while busily preparing the flowers for the day. Other than her mother, the only other employee of the Shops of Homewood is a part-time horticulturist--though they do sometimes get other help.
"There is one man, Michael, who occasionally takes out our trash," Mardi says. "We give him a dollar so he can get himself a cup of coffee, and he doesn't scream obscenities in front of our store." She's referring to the notorious Charles Village eccentric, known for his obscenity-peppered public outbursts.
While Mardi takes care of her Tuesday morning chores, she is interrupted by the arrival of another Charles Village resident, Jimmy, a Halfway House veteran.
"We don't have anything for you right now, Jimmy," Mardi says, apologetically. "Come back in a half hour and Mom will have some coffee for you."
Clearly, Mardi and Alice pride themselves on the rapport they have with the students and the community.
Alice said that while the new retail developments will be mostly geared to students, the Shops at Homewood relies on faculty members and older customers, who have been shopping at small stores their entire lives, before the advent of the modern mega-mall.
"Students have a lot to do, so they have to do one-stop shopping. Small shops just don't function that way. That's not a criticism of the students, it's just a generation difference," the elder Brock says.
Alice likes to tell the story of a trip she took in upstate New York, through the Adirondack Mountains.
"We were going through a part where you could go miles without seeing another human being," she says. Eventually, Brock and her friend realized that they were lost, and that they must have somehow missed Route 2. They stopped in the nearest town for directions, and the only store that was open was a small gift shop, similar to Images.
The store owner gave them directions, and as they were leaving, he stopped them in their tracks with a question.
"Hey, aren't you from Baltimore?" he asked.
As it turns out, the store owner had been to Charles Village before, and had enjoyed talking to Alice at her store.
"It was just crazy being so far out of the way and finding someone who knew you," Alice says.
"I bet that doesn't happen too often to people who work at The Gap," says one of the customers who had been listening intently to Brock's story.
"Nope, I bet it doesn't," says Brock with a chuckle. "I bet it doesn't."
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