The Gift Loft

The general gist of many people’s opinion of the Gift Loft is that we as Buffalonians should be grateful for its very existence. After all, they say, «It occupies a storefront in the shambles that is the Main Place Mall.» After all, they continue, «How many other places offer anything Buffalo related to purchase?» Bah! If the present incarnation of the Gift Loft is the best Buffalo can do, we should be ashamed as a city.
The Gift Loft offers the following:
1) A small selection of vapid, corny, and generally uninteresting Buffalo-​themed and other-​themed tee shirts without even the class of a Michael Margulis or a Pasturized Tees.
2) A small selection of shot glasses, coffee cups, and mugs.
3) One rack of post cards reminiscent of the 1980’s.
4) A small selection (by small, I mean less than a score) of books on Buffalo, most of which have nothing to do with Buffalo as a city at all but instead with Darwin Martin, with the Bills, or so forth. No coffee table books with beautiful illustrations of our rich heritage, no odes to historic Buffalo neighborhoods (i.e. Tim Bohen’s wonderful «Against the Grain»), no biographies of contemporary Buffalo-​area luminaries (i.e. Tim Russert, Joyce Carol Oates, President Millard Fillmore, etc.), or so forth.
5) An odds-​and-​ends selection of goods I will tentatively label arts and crafts. I could swear that nary an item has been purchased off these shelves since I first visited more than a year ago. They’re all «one of a kind» but all still there!
6) A table discordantly replete with Poland-​themed knickknacks.
7) A comparatively large selection of tchotchkes reminiscent of As Seen on TV outposts in sprawling strip malls. Ugh.
In other words, it’s entirely possible to walk into this store thinking, «Okay, I just want to get my second cousin in Toledo something so I don’t show up empty handed. Anything will work,» peruse, and walk out burdened only by a sense of deep disappointment.
The ways in which Gift Loft could improve to make itself more dynamic, to earn more business are superabundant. They could take source directly from Margulis. They could add food items from Niagara Chocolate, Fowler’s, Parkside Candies, or similar. Where are the Anchor Bar items, the Lloyd’s sauce, and so forth? There’s no need to offer as many books as Talking Leaves, but how about *some* more? What about a wider selection of Buffalo knickknacks? Of ball caps, of scarves, of plush animals, of sweatshirts, and so forth? The reality that this store could improve by several orders of magnitude merely by cloning the merch store at the airport is a travesty.
If the Buffalo merch store in the airport ranks three stars (as it’s roughly equivalent to peer stores in any airports all over and thus «A-​Okay»), and the Gift Loft is orders of magnitude inferior, a one-​star ranking is the only option.

A gift store inside the Main Place Mall with some nice Buffalo-​trinkets.
If you’re looking to put together a gift pack of city-​centric products, I’d suggest coming here and the Buffalo-​Niagara Visitor Center inside the Market Arcade.
Here you’ll find:
— Gift packs with Buffalo Wing Sauce and Paintbrush (priced at $ 5)
— Buffalo stuffed animals and stress balls ($ 5 – 30)
— Buffalo T-​Shirts /​Books
— Weber’s Mustard
— Chicken Wing Christmas Ornaments (LOL)
…they also have some non-​Buffalo items like Russian Matroshka dolls, jewelery and more. Cool place!

The best place to buy both nice and tacky «buffalo» themed gifts. This is absolutely your one-​stop shop for Dyngus Day, Italian fest, Bill-​tailgating or St Patrick’s Day paraphenelia!
Not only can you gift an awesome tacky Buffy souvenir to your loved ones, you can buy beautiful etched glassware and other Buffalo-​themed décor.