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Genesee Tourism: Stock the tree, stuff the stockings, and save: 'Shop Local' this holiday season

By Genesee County Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center

The holiday season is filled with family, friends, great food… and lots of shopping. This year, skip the big box stores and crowded malls – because Genesee County has something for everyone on your list. When you shop local you can save money and support your neighbors, a win-win for everyone.

We’ve got so many great options, where do you start? Well, nothing says the holidays like toys. From classics like board games and bikes, to new trends like fidget spinners, there’s no better feeling than watching a child unwrap that must-have toy. And there’s no better place to shop for those toys than at Adam Miller Toy and Bicycle.

For 100 years, Adam Miller has been the go-to toy store for all of Genesee County. Reminiscent of a bygone area, walk in and you’ll feel transported back to 1918. The original owning family requested the storefront always look the way it did then -- a request the subsequent two owners have happily honored. Inside, the store only stocks those toys that don’t require batteries – and there are plenty of them.

Kids will stay entertained for hours with puzzles, brain teasers, coloring books, Slinkys, puppets, plushies and more -- all without the aid of electronics, lights, or noise, and with minimal assembly (making it the perfect gift for parents, too!).

Ditch the remote controls and leave the batteries in the box -- you won’t need them this holiday season!

More, more, more!

We know Adam Miller Toy and Bicycle can keep you captivated for hours – but there are so many more stores to explore. Try out these local favorites and start checking items off your list:

Batavia Bootery, 210 Main St., Batavia

Handcrafted with love and care by professionals, Batavia Bootery is the perfect place to stock up on seasonal footwear or pick up a gift that will last for years to come.

Country Cottage, 10448 Harper Road, Darien Center

Have a hard-to-shop-for person on your list? Stop by Country Cottage. With unique gifts, rustic home décor, fresh baked goodies, and unusual crafts, you’re sure to find a hidden gem.

Country Hill Home Accessories & Gifts, 11119 W. Park St., Pavilion

Treasures abound around every corner at Country Hill Home! Shop brands such as Vera Bradley, Crabtree & Evelyn, Byer’s Choice Carolers, and more.

Craft Supplies Unlimited, 70 S. Lake Ave., Bergen

Whether you’re helping someone restock their crafting room, or inspire a first-time crafter, Craft Supplies makes it easy to pick out everything you need – for every kind of craft.

Foxprowl Collectables, 440 Ellicott St., Batavia

Your one-stop shop for everything the collector in your life could want. Browse hundreds of figures, comics, and pop culture items from the 1960s, '70s, '80s, '90s and more, online or in-store.

Hidden Door & Pollyanna & Dot, 202 E. Main St., Batavia

What's better than one boutique shop? Two! Shop homewares, decor and more, or browse the vintage-inspired frocks.

Karen's Yarn Paper Scissors, 220 E. Main St., Batavia

For the knitters and crochet-lovers, Karen’s is stocked with yarn beyond your wildest dreams. Or give the gift of a new hobby with Karen’s how-to classes on crocheting, wreathes, painting and more.

Northwoods Alpacas, 6499 N. Lake Road, Bergen

While you likely can’t give the gift of an alpaca (which is too bad, since they are oh, so soft!), you can give alpaca gear, gifts and accessories -- like socks, sweaters, scarves and more. Browse a wide selection at Northwoods – and don’t forget to visit the farm while there!

Oliver's Candies, 211 W. Main St., Batavia

There’s no sweeter gift than a goodie that comes from Oliver’s! Award-winning candies and chocolates make the perfect stocking stuffer, hostess gift or centerpiece. The holidays also bring out the best in colorful, handcrafted ribbon candy.

One World Projects, 56 Harvester Ave., Batavia

If sustainability is on your mind, One World Projects is the place to shop. Their products are fair trade, compassionate trade, eco-positive, recycled materials, animal-friendly and organic. No matter the selection, you can feel good about this gift!

Sweet Life Country Store, 100 Main St., Elba

Sweet Life is a “sweet” find along any local shopping trip. This little country store sells locally made products – jam, honey, syrup, cards and decorations, quilts and blankets, artist creations – even treats for the pups! You can also find Oliver’s Candies products, along with custom-blend coffees -- a pick-me-up after a long day out.

The Divine Tree, 19 Main St., Le Roy

Unique and tasty gourmet goodies are the focus of The Divine Tree. From olive oils and vinegars to honey products – they even have a tasting bar for you to try before you buy! Also find Stonewall Kitchen products, Woodwick candles, leather jewelry and more.

Vinyl Record Revival, 220 E. Main St., Batavia

If you’re looking to “just take those old records off the shelf,” stop by Vinyl Record Revival for a large selection of new and gently used vinyl albums – and don’t miss the $1 clearance room. Used CDs and stereo equipment can also be found here!

For even more great retailers in Genesee County, click here.

Photos: Shopping local on Shop Small Saturday in Batavia

By Howard B. Owens

Sue Schultz checks out, with the help of Michael Mugler, her purchases at Adam Miller Toy and Bicycle this afternoon on Shop Small Saturday, a day promoted nationally to encourage shopping at locally owned businesses.

Locally owned retail businesses are critical to healthy local communities. Small business owners provide the support communities need to thrive and more of the money spent at a locally owned business stays in the local community to help the local economy grow.

For more:

  • Grow Your Own (PDF) by the Kansas City Federal Reserve (A guide for local communities on promoting support for small, local businesses)
  • The Shop Local Ripple Effect, by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance

For a directory of locally owned businesses, visit ShopLocal.TheBatavian.com.

Andrea Karas and Kasey Woodhouse shopping at Pollyanna and Dot and The Hidden Door.

Gerald Diskin shopping for shoes at Batavia Bootery with Kevin Stone.

Post recommendations on Shop Local for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate for R&D

By Howard B. Owens

VIsit ShopLocal.TheBatavian.com and post a recommendation for any local business listed on the site for a chance to win a $100 from R&D Factory Outlet. 

To qualify, recommendations must be posted by Jan. 15.

Multiple recommendations posted count as multiple chances to win. Post as many recommendations as you want.

You must register to post a recommendation. If you've already registered or have registered for Deal of the Day, just use the "sign in" link on the site.

Our previous drawing was for two $50 gift certificates for Alex's Place. The winners were Christopher Gersitz, of Darien Center, and Jean Appis, of Byron.

Share the word on your favorite local businesses for a chance to win a gift certificate for Alex's Place

By Howard B. Owens

How many local businesses do you love? Share why they're your favorites on ShopLocal.TheBatavian.com and you become eligible to win a $50 gift certificate for Alex's Place (two winners). Go to ShopLocal.TheBatavian.com and post as many recommendations as you want. Every recommendation posted before Jan. 4, 2017, increases your chance of winning.

The winners of the Adam Miller Toy and Bicycle gift certificates were Steven Pagano, of Spencerport, and Pamela Morris, of Batavia.

Post recommendations to ShopLocal.TheBatavian.com for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate for Adam Miller

By Howard B. Owens

Visit ShopLocal.TheBatavian.com before Dec. 27 and post recommendations for your favorite local businesses for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate for Adam Miller Toy and Bicycle.

Each recommendation posted increases your chances of winning.

The winner of the Valle Jeweler's gift certificate was Penny Hogan, of Le Roy, for her recommendation for R&D Outlet Center.

UPDATE 10:25 p.m.: I just discovered a code error introduced into the code this morning that was preventing recommendations posted today from being saved. It was redirecting people to the home page instead of completing the process. It is fixed now.

It's the last day to post a recommendation on Shop Local for a chance to win Valle's gift certificate

By Howard B. Owens

We've received dozens of recommendations on Shop Local for local businesses in the past five days and there is only one day left in our drawing to win a $100 gift certificate to Valle Jewelers.

Every recommendation posted on ShopLocal.TheBatavian.com before Tuesday earns a chance to win the gift certificate. To post a recommendation, go to ShopLocal.TheBatavian.com and click on the links for your favorite local businesses and find the area on the page for recommendations. (You need to be registered and signed in to post a recommendation, but if you've already signed up for Deal of the Day, you have an account already.)

Here are the 10 local businesses with the most recommendations so far:

  1. Valle Jewelers
  2. Red Osier Landmark Restaurant
  3. Bourbon & Burger Co.
  4. Genesee Dental
  5. Southside Deli
  6. Adam Miller Toy and Bicycle
  7. West Main Wine & Spirits
  8. R & D Factory Outlet
  9. Fab Fajita & Pita
  10. T.F. Brown's

If your local business isn't listed on ShopLocal.theBatavian.com, call Dawn Puleo at (585) 250-4118 for assistance.

Here's how you can maybe win a $100 gift card to Valle Jewelers

By Howard B. Owens

Yesterday, we launched our new local business promotion site, ShopLocal.TheBatavian.com.

One of the first features we added to the site (there are more to come) is a way for you to post recommendations for your favorite local businesses. Recommendations are a great way for you to help spread the word about your favorite local businesses and encourage your friends, family members and neighbors to give these businesses a try.

If you post a recommendation on ShopLocal.TheBatavian.com in the next week, you will be entered into a drawing for a free $100 gift certificate to Valle Jewelers. In fact, it gets better: the more recommendations you post, the greater your chance of winning because you get one ticket in the drawing for every recommendation you post.

This contest will end the morning of Dec. 21. That gives you a week to post as many recommendations as you can and get as many chances as you can to win a $100 gift certificate to Valle Jewelers.

No purchase necessary. Employees of The Batavian are excluded from the drawing.

To post a recommendation, you need to register on the site. Here's the easy part: if you've already registered for Deal of the Day, just use your same email and password to sign in.

Introducing our new Shop Local site for Genesee County

By Howard B. Owens

When we launched our Deal of the Day program, I shared that this was the first step toward my intention to write code, to create a series of programs that I hope will better serve local residents and local businesses.

Today, we announce the next big step along this path -- launching a new site to help promote local businesses, ShopLocal.TheBatavian.com.

I built this, no vendor, no open source software, because none of the options really did what I think a site like this should do for local businesses and local residents. What ShopLocal.TheBatavian.com is today is not what it will be a year or even two years from now. This is just the foundation, a framework. I will add more and more services and functions as time permits.

And stay tuned, in the next day or two we will announce the first in a series of contests tied into this new site.

Meanwhile, visit ShopLocal.TheBatavian.com and email me with any feedback, suggestions or errors you find: howard@thebatavian.com.

Also, if you own a local business and it's not listed, call our office at (585) 250-4118 and ask for Dawn Puleo. She can assist you.

Kathy Hochul makes annual shopping trip to Batavia, finds more vibrant downtown

By Howard B. Owens

It's been five years since Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul first came to Batavia for part of her Christmas shopping and she noted today while standing outside Valle Jewelers how much things have changed.

For the better.

"Five years ago you would see one person, maybe two, in a store and you would feel kind of bad because I know hard it was when my mom had a little business and nobody walked through the door," Hochul said. "It’s a lonely feeling and I know how hard these people work."

Hochul owned a small shop in a WNY village at a time when most people were predicting decline for the area, but she stuck with it and that's one reason Hochul believes so strongly in supporting locally owned businesses.

"My connection with these people is that I feel that same entrepreneurial spirit (as her mother), true believers, people who never gave up in places like Batavia," Hochul said. "I come out and thank them for staying with it during the tough times and hopefully they’re very successful now as people are starting to rediscover downtowns."

There are new retail shops in Downtown Batavia and in addition to visiting her favorites, Adam Miller Toy and Bicycle, Charles Men's Shop and Valle Jewelers, Hochul also stopped in at The Hidden Door/Pollyanna & Dot and Foxprowl Collectables.

Hochul remarked on the great diversity of businesses helping to anchor downtown as a more vibrant shopping destination and that's good for all the businesses.

"The downtown has really come alive again and it’s satisfying for me to see," Hochul said.

Hochul was accompanied on her walk through downtown by City Manager Jason Molino, who shared information about the projects completed and underway that are transforming downtown, such as the planned brewery and restaurant incubator going into the former Newberry's building. Projects like those, and the new shoe store, a joint effort between Charles Men's Shop and p.w. minor, will only help draw more people to Batavia and to downtown, she said.

Hochul promised that the governor's office will continue to support programs that assist in local economic development, such as those that assisted in bringing new apartment units downtown and is helping with brownfield redevelopment and projects that will hopefully help the whole county's economy grow, such as STAMP -- Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park.

"There’s a direct correlation between a governor who has been paying attention to Upstate New York, and myself knowing it so well in the past five years, to where I really think we've made a difference," Hochul said.

Shop Local: Keep our community strong and vibrant

By Howard B. Owens

Today is Shop Local Saturday. Ironically, it's a national event pushed by a multinational corporation. Be that as it may, our readers know one of the underlying philosophies of The Batavian is that people should strive to shop at local businesses as much as possible.

In this day and age, it would be impossible in just about any community in America to shop in only local shops, but all over America, as in Genesee County, our communities are filled with vital local businesses.

Local businesses are essential to a community's health and prosperity. Social science research shows that communities with strong local business communities reap all kinds of benefits, from higher graduation rates to lower poverty rates and even a lower infant mortality rate.  

Local business owners help tie a community together. They volunteer more, give more and share more. They're part of our civic organizations and donate most to our local charities. Without successful local businesses, we would all be worse off.

There's been a lot of attention paid in this past election cycle to the idea that more of what we buy should be manufactured in the United States. That drive to bring manufacturing back to the United States means nothing if we're not supporting our local businesses. It's not that our local shops stock only American-made products, though that's more likely, it's that they are right in our community helping our community. If you truly want to see a great America, do something more than rally around manufacturing, support your local business owners, the people who live in your community and give to your community.

Here's a list of The Batavian's sponsors, which is a good place to start when shopping local for Christmas and into the New Year. We also encourage your support of the sponsors of the Pin Points bowling column, which runs every other Thursday exclusively on The Batavian.

We thank them for their support of The Batavian and thank you for your support of The Batavian and our community.

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