Why #ShopLocal — and #ShopBronxville — Is So Important

BRONXVILLE, NY— 1 October 2018

Time was, not so long ago, there was backslapping all around Vobbots' meetings (Village of Bronxville Board of Trustees, pronounced like "hobbits"). Our community of 6,547 could support two high-end eateries. Now it cannot. Sammy's Downtown has gone dark.

The reason is simple. We are not spending our money in the Village, as we well should. Our Chamber of Commerce has previously expressed a baffling "no comment" on the practice by area charities — in this instance, by the Bronxville School Foundation, Inc. — to email solicitations for Amazon links to their lists of donors. This behavior kills Village businesses, and it needs to stop.

As your former Bronxville-Eastchester Patch Mayor, I am pledging today to do 100% of my holiday shopping at local businesses. And I am challenging Mayor Mary Marvin and the Vobbots to do likewise. Come Boxing Day, let's compare receipts.

As for you, area charities — please stop it with the Amazon links. Not only are you hurting your own community, you are supporting a notoriously exploitative employer when you send Bronxville-Eastchester business elsewhere. Please stop. Instead:

#ShopLocal #ShopBronxville

—Brer Abbott, Patch Poster (Former Patch Mayor), Bronxville-Eastchester, NY