NOBODY IN AMERICA WANTS TO GET OLD. BUT EVERYONE WILL unless you prefer the alternative, as Alexis Abramson likes to say. But the 32-year-old entrepreneur celebrates the power of silver, and as a result, she has discovered pure gold.

As founder and president of Mature Mart, an Atlantabased company selling products for seniors, Abramson markets everything from jar openers to toilet seat lifts to large-size playing cards. Her products sell via catalog, telephone, Internet, at Kroger pharmacies and on a monthly QVC Shopping Channel segment. Now in its third year in business, Mature Mart will report an estimated revenue of $4.5 million for 1999.

Abramson appears on NBC's "Today" show each month, introducing new products for seniors. National magazines like BusinessWeek and Forbes, as well as National Public Radio, have recently profiled Abramson and Mature Mart. They applaud her for her ingenuity as much as her success.

Few thought to rap into the seniors' market before Abramson, and she is reaping the benefits.

"I've always had a great affinity for mature adults," says Abramson, sipping coffee in her Midtown high-rise office. She credits her strong bond with her grandparents as the inspiration for her career choice, and her "passion for and dedication to helping seniors."

She describes growing up in Macon, Ga., with a quartet of guardian angels: "One grandfather was an expert in sports, the other, an expert in stocks. One grandmother ran a business. My other grandmother who works here -- she's off today because she's taking courses at Emory -- was a house mother at a sorority for 15 years. They each gave me a set of skills, knowledge and experience that I've been able to take through my life," she says.

Abramson dreams of a "barrier-free society" for seniors and disabled people. In her ideal world, all buildings, restaurants, businesses and workplaces have ramps and grab-bars and big-button phones.

"Older people can't get on and off chairs, they're too low. They can't open doors, they're too heavy. All I need to do is educate society and corporations on what it means to universally design the world. If something is more comfortable for a senior, nine times out of ten, it's more comfortable for you and me, too, so it's a win-win," she says.

Abramson gets riled when she describes the prevalent negative attitude Americans have toward the elderly. "There is a huge fear of aging. The older people get, the more they want to run away from it. Part of what I strive to do is to create a positive experience and atmosphere that surrounds aging."

It took Abramson a few years to translate her love of seniors, like her grandparents, into a career. After studying travel and tourism at Arizona State University, she worked for Club Med, administering arrivals, departures and excursions for six resorts. The sunny job honed some of her skills, but didn't fulfill her. So in her mid-20s, she searched for a new career. Drawing on her comfort with seniors, she studied gerontology, and earned Georgia's first master's degree in the field at West Georgia College.

She then ran the seniors program at the Atlanta Jewish Community Center. It was there, watching seniors in daily exercise classes, meals and poker games that she saw their struggles firsthand. They couldn't hold ordinary playing cards because of arthritis. They couldn't read newspapers because the print was too small.

But one incident became her wake-up call. "I walked into my office, and there was this woman named Sadie. She had the phone in one hand, and a phone number in the other, and I see these tears running down her face," Abramson recalls. Sadie couldn't see the numbers on the dial pad. They were too small. This dilemma struck Abramson deeply--if a gerontologist had a phone that a senior couldn't use, what barriers did the rest of the world hold?

Determined to create change, Abramson began searching for products to help Sadie and others like her. She found many, but to her surprise, they weren't easy to obtain. "There were no one-stop shopping centers or catalogs, and no way to get the products expeditiously." Abramson began creating a database of 20,000 different products. Shocked that no retailer offered useful products for America's 70 million seniors (not to mention the 76 million baby boomers on their heels), the idea for Mature Mart was born.

With no experience in business, Abramson read voraciously. She approached her parents for a loan of $50,000. They saw her determination and the idea's wisdom, and made the money available. Mature Mart was born in late 1995 in a storage room in a friend's Midtown office. Soon, it was a family affair with her mother, Phyllis, her grandmother, Rose, and even an aunt joining the company.

Mature Mart began selling products at a kiosk in Macon Mall. There it attracted the attention of a buyer for Kroger supermarkets. Now, Mature Mart product displays sit in 800 Kroger pharmacies, and there are plans for kiosks to open in malls across the country.

Sales took off -- $150,000 in the first year -- but she struggled to gather more capital. Solid sales numbers finally earned her a Small Business Administration loan. "Now, they're knocking down our door to give us loans," she laughs.

Ironically, Abramson credits naivete for her success. "I don't have a Harvard MBA. I didn't know what you were supposed to do, so I didn't know I was doing it wrong! I went with my gut, and I was able to succeed," she says.

Despite making speeches to seniors at churches, synagogues, assisted living homes and community centers, and conducting focus groups with older customers to determine products' usefulness, Abramson misses daily, one-on-one contact with the elderly. "It's the passion for the senior that drives me," she says. "I'm not in the trenches anymore, and that was a tough one for me."

While Abramson enjoys her achievements -- the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Atlanta Business Chronicle named her Small Business Person of 1999 -- she lives with the pressures associated with running a business. She admits to being sleep-deprived, but still manages to date, volunteer, exercise, and spend time with friends and family. "I'm trying to get less sleep or to figure out to spend more hours awake," she says, laughing. "Of course, you have to rest and relax, too!"

Abramson finds guidance in Tony Robbins' inspirational books, and volunteer work is important to her. She takes part in fundraising walks (blending exercise with advocacy) for charities like the Alzheimer's Association, the Atlanta Community Food Bank, and Avon's three-day walk for breast cancer held last October. She's also served as an organizer for the annual Hunger Walk for the last two years.

Attractive, active, single and successful--Abramson "attracts people," says family friend Claudia Gaines, owner of the Headline Group public relations firm. "But more importantly, she is an authentic person." If authenticity draws people to Abramson, it's also what she looks for in others. "I look at a man and say, 'What is his soul like? Can he make me laugh? Does he have something to bring to the table that will create happiness in our relationship for the rest of our lives?'"

Staying grounded, she believes, is the key to growth. If she ever doubts the boundless possibilities of life, all Alexis Abramson has to do is walk to the front desk of Mature Mart's offices and talk to her grandmother, Rose.

"When she turned 87, we wanted to get her a VCR, because she loves old movies," recalls Abramson. But Grandma Rose had a better idea. "She said, 'That's nice, but honestly, I really need a new modem. Mine is just too slow.' We all hit the floor! It was just too much!"

Life, Abramson learns from her grandmother, is a very busy, fulfilling thing even at 87. And with the right tools, whether it's a zipper pull or a 56K modem, 87 is just the beginning.