By Melanie Brittain

Elmwood Village is known for its flair and its unique gifts, food and nightlife. Elmwood Village is the business district on Elmwood Avenue, which hosts a variety of shops and venues. Some make it, and some don’t.

One business owner said the beauty of Elmwood Avenue is that every store offers something different. For example, Cathleen Finan opened Cosefini last November, a shop on the Elmwood strip near Bidwell Avenue, which offers what Finan called “luxury items at a reasonable price.”

“I know that what keeps people coming is that I have really high quality things.” said Finan. “I think I will make it here because I purposely try to be different than everyone else.”

This new store is a sister store to one that has existed in East Aurora for five years. Finan said she opened the new shop because Buffalo is a bigger market with greater diversity.

“People like to come shopping in one location and they’ll come shop here if they know that they can go in another shop and find something completely different,” she said. “They can find something for everybody on their list, versus going into the same types of shops and seeing the same things, it’s much more fun to find different things.”

Another place on Elmwood Avenue to find diverse gifts and products isBuffalo Hemp Outfitters, also near Bidwell. This store offers a wide range of products including:

• clothing

• jewelry

• hygiene Products

• journals

• accessories

• backpacks

Marc Gromis, a volunteer at Buffalo Hemp, said that all their products seem to do well.

“Elmwood is good because you have the sort of middle class, sort of middle-aged people that shop at the co-op and college students, so Elmwood was a good fit for us,” he said.

Ashley Snowden, 22, a Buffalo State College student, said she likes the strip because one can find anything they want. She has shopped on the strip before for gifts.

As one of the newer faces on the strip, Finan said she felt very welcomed by other business owners and the community.

“I was very impressed when I first opened that everyone was very welcoming, the city made it easy to open and the landlord is great. Other business owners came by and were very welcoming and very helpful,” said Finan.

While the Elmwood strip seems to be continuously changing, these stores are trying to make it for the long haul. They believe that the area is supported by a diverse population looking for something interesting and unique.

The sometime fragility of new businesses on Elmwood Avenue can be seen in the collage posters produced by Poster Art, also of Elmwood. The store owner makes a collage-style poster every five years to show the changes that the strip has undergone.

CONTACT: Melanie Brittain – Shadowboxer2430@aol.com