Hey, does this look like a fun way to spend the wee hours of the day after Thanksgiving?

Or maybe you’d like to take your kids out shopping with you—

Sure, you may get a deep discount on a television or a video game if you gang-rush a big box store at 5 a.m. on Black Friday (by the way, there are about a million websites where you can get the same stuff any day of the year), but you have to prepare for—and, in some cases, display—human behavior at its worst. Greed, violence, selfishness—not exactly the epitome of the holiday spirit or the way to build strong community bonds.

There’s another option. Sleep a little later, skip the chain store madness and choose to shop local with the Elmwood Village Association’s Black Friday Boutique Crawl beginning at 8 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 23 in Buffalo’s Elmwood Village. Check in at any of these locations—Caffe Aroma (957 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo), Spot Coffee (765 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo) or Coffee Culture (448 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo)—between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. to get a free punch card which, if you fill it out over the course of your shopping day, makes you eligible to win sweet gift baskets from various Elmwood Avenue shops.

Why shop local? Consider some of the reasons offered by local shopping advocates Buffalo First!:

Local spending keeps 3X more money in Buffalo.
Locals create the most new jobs.
Locals donate more to nonprofits.
Local businesses often use fewer subsidies to develop.
Locals are less likely to relocate in slow economic times.
Local sourcing often produces less carbon.
Local foods, businesses, organizations and practices make Buffalo unique.
Locals are neighborhood advocates, caretakers and watchdogs.
Locals can make decisions driven by their conscience, not decisions that maximize shareholder profit.
Local food is fresher and better for you.

Keep an eye out for the Buffalo.com promotional team (they will be the college kids in pink t-shirts and antlers)—they will be on the street, handing out flyers highlighting cool gift items from Elmwood Village stores that belong to our very own ShopBuffalo.com, taking pictures on their iPhones and generally spreading holiday cheer. Stop by Spot Coffee between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. and you can actually meet the Buffalo.com crew and get free swag like t-shirts, ornaments, stickers and more. We might even buy you a hot chocolate.

There will also be a holiday gift show at the Lafayette Presbyterian Church (875 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo) at 5:30 p.m. on Black Friday, so your local shopping experience can stretch deep into the evening—or at least until 7 p.m., when there will be a holiday tree lighting at the Globe Market pocket park (762 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo), with complementary hot chocolate, cookies and caroling.

It’s up to you, Buffalo—you can deal with this…

...or you can relax and shop.

You make the call!

Participating businesses include: Abalie, Abraham’s Jewelers, Allentown Music, Artisans’ Hands, Atelier Piras, Authentic Mediterranean Taste, Bike or Bar, Buffalo Fleece and Outerwear, Burchfield Penney Museum Store, Caffe Aroma, Campus Wheelworks, Clutch, Dandy Candy & Gifts, Dolci, East Meets West Yoga, El Buen Amigo, Everything Beauty, Fierce Accessories, Filigrees Gallery & Boutique, Gelateria Luca, Homeward Bound, Lotions and Potions, MS Eye Candy, Offbeat Emporium, Pasteurized Tees, Reimagine Furniture, Sai One, Second Chic, ShoeFly, Spoiled Rotten, Spot Coffee, Talking Leaves, The TreeHouse, Thin Ice, Turnstyle, Urban Threads, Village Beer Merchant and Wild Things.