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Website Helps Pittsburgh Holiday Shoppers Buy Local

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Many of us want to buy locally made gifts for the holidays, but don't know where to find them. A new website aims to solve that problem.

"This is Wild Card in Lawrenceville," says Heather Walsh, entering the shop on Butler Street. "They're one of the stores that are highlighted in our gift guide.

Her gift guide is part of her website, www.pittsburghbuylocal.com. It's a road map to local business.

"We created these series of guides on line that are going to focus on seasons and holidays," she says. "And right now we have the holiday gift guide on line. And there is pretty much everything you'd want to find there as far as gifts go."

Artist Audra Azoury, whose work is on display at Wild Card, says the site helps art lovers find artists.

"There's so many people that don't know where to find things, unless it's a local craft show that may or may happen once or twice a year," she says.

The Gallery on 43rd Street has been an antidote to chain stores for 19 years. Owner Mary Coleman says Pittsburgh Buy Local helps small businesses compete.

"I don't think we have the advertising budgets of larger stores," she says. "It helps immensely just to get the word out and people coming into our shops."

A nondescript building in the Strip District gives no hint of what's inside.

"We're an independent market made up of small businesses," says Tiffani Emig, manager of Pitsburgh Public Market. "About two dozen of them. The Pittsburgh Buy Local website just helps spread that message, and helps us identify with other businesses in Pittsburgh who do the same thing."
 
For information on more than sixty local businesses, visit www.pittsburghbuylocal.com.

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