Shop where you live. That’s this issue’s big message. Unless you happen to live in the suburbs, in which case the message is: Come to Buffalo to shop. We want you here, and we have what you need.

At Artvoice we do these Gift Guides every year. Twice a year, in fact: once before Thanksgiving (you’re reading that one) to kick off this season of conspicuous consumption, and again two weeks before Christmas, when procrastinators like me are desperately searching for last-minute gift ideas.

It’s kind of a meet-your-merchant thing. Better yet, a meet-your-city thing. Year after year we look for new ways to say the same thing, which is: Stop going to the mall. You don’t have to. Buffalo’s shops and restaurants have got more to offer—of higher quality and at better prices, healthier for the mind and body, utterly unique—than any shopping mall or strip plaza.

So just stop. Stop living in your vehicle. Stop driving one or two people to a car to a moonscape of a parking lot in the suburbs.

Stop buying clothes, jewelry and tchotchkes from chain stores. Do you really want to give your loved one the same sweater that 3,000 other people in the Greater Buffalo area will receive?

Stop buying cheese and smoked sausage at Hickory Farms. Stop eating in the food court.

Instead, get yourself—by car, by bike, by bus or by train—to one of Buffalo’s many business districts, every one of which is resurgent. Elmwood Avenue offers an astonishing wealth of little stores, eateries and bars—two blocks will take you a day, easy.

Some of the geniuses behind Elmwood’s renaissance have turned their eyes toward strengthening Grant Street’s business district, which, like Elmwood in more dire days, has unique qualities and tremendous potential. (You can’t get Somalian food at the mall.) University Heights—accessible by light rail—is finally free of roadwork. Allentown is what it has always been: a brilliant collection of antique shops, curious boutiques and galleries, punctuated by great places to eat and drink. And Hertel Avenue, on the city’s north end, is a shopping revelation—as rich in antiques and specialty shops as Allentown. And the restaurants are plentiful and excellent.

Walk around. Meet your neighbors. Better yet, buy something your neighbor made or from your neighbor’s shop. Keep your money close to home, and remember that’s where charity begins, too. Shop where you live. We’re here to help show you how.

And come back to us on December 14 if you need help with those last-minute gift ideas. We’ll have lots of them.