"Shopping is Hopping in Buffalo"

OK. So you might be asking...Why am I blogging about Buffalo, NY of all places?

I lived there for a few years. Shhh. Don't tell anyone.

Don't get me wrong. People who live in Buffalo absolutely love it there. And my brother-in-law, who grew up there, is a die-hard Buffalo Bills fan. People who grew up there often return after college, which says a lot about the place.


But I didn't grow up there. It is where I went "home" to during breaks from school. My parents lived in a suburb of Buffalo while I was in college. So instead of going home at Christmas break to visit my family in wonderful CHICAGO (where I had grown up), I travelled to East Amherst, NY.

My mother would say, "When you come home, we can go shopping!" and I always wanted to say "You couldn't PAY me to go shopping in Buffalo."

So today, when I read about Buffalo in USA Today, I just knew I had to share.

It turns out that now Buffalo wants to pay people to shop there! The Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitor's Bureau is giving people $50 to spend in Buffalo shops and malls...not just anyone, though. They want to pay Canadians to cross the border and shop there--which is ironic since I always felt that the best thing about Buffalo shopping was TORONTO.

The new slogan, designed to entice Canadians to make a run for the border is:

"Shopping is Hopping in Buffalo"