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Holiday Gift Guide to New York City Small Businesses!

It's time to shop small this holiday season when our local NYC businesses need us most! We hand picked our top 10 favorite local NYC businesses to shop at this year and mention several more to make shopping small easy and fun for you! Scroll down to see some gift ideas for your loved ones from these amazing small businesses based in the big apple!

Celebrity face cookies!

Funny Face Bakery

A unique gift no one will see coming. Is your sister obsessed with Harry Styles? Did your fam binge watch Tiger King or Harry Potter during quarantine? Funny Face Bakery makes delicious cookies that are so pretty and detailed you may not want to eat them. Better yet you can actually customize a cookie with whatever face you want! Even a dog or cat for the animal lovers in your life! If this isn’t a thoughtful and unique gift, we don’t know what is. Order yours online now!

High end, funky + unique trinkets!

Coming Soon

Head to Coming Soon for all the art lovers in your life who appreciate a well-designed trinket. Even though a ton of their pieces are on the higher-end side, you can still find some cool items for under 50 bucks. Our faves are the gradient puzzle, the goob candles, and fake cocaine coasters. Their storefront is open if you want to check it out in person or head to their website where they’ve made a whole gift guide section for you!

Record bundles by genre!

Rough Trade NYC

Rough Trade is an institution so instead of ordering your records off Amazon, let’s show the pros some love! For the holidays they are offering these super fun record bundles based off of genres or categories. For example they have alternative 90’s, Classic Rock, Songwriting Legends and more. Not into records? They have some really cool book offerings about music history and more!

Kikoshi dolls, self-watering planters and more!

Beam

Want to support local while also supporting artists from abroad? Beam has art pieces from artists all over the world! Our faves include Kikoshi dolls (of your fave celebs or singers), self-watering pots, and monkey house lights! Their website is FULL of some of the coolest art pieces we’ve ever seen, so you’re guaranteed to find something truly special for anyone in your life.

Zero waste products!

Package Free

Package free believes in the Zero Waste Movement and has created some of the coolest sustainable products we’ve ever seen! From health/beauty, to kitchen supplies, to stuff for your pets, they’ve truly got it all. When it comes to gifts, you should definitely check out their kits. They’ve created packages with products based on what activity you’re doing. For example, traveling, going to the market, doing laundry, grooming your dog, making cocktails and many, many more. Prices range between $20 and $100 dollars depending on how big the kit is so check them out online now!

Swanky 70’s vintage finds!

The Swan’s House

So you’re shopping for someone artsy but they’re obsessed with ~vintage~. Look no further than Swan’s House! Located a bit outside NYC, this shop is curated so well that often the pieces fly in and out daily (so if you see something you like, hop on it fast). Our fave items are the Vogue puzzles and the bluetooth speakers that look like old radios (they’re seriously cool). Check out their website or Instagram for some seriously cool vintage/vintage-inspired finds!

Beautiful gardening tools or cooking items!

Sprout Home

Sprout has made an Autumn/Winter Gift Guide on their website and we are loving every bit of it. The cook in your life will surely appreciate a cute owl grater and the gardener in your life would appreciate a beautiful brass watering can. Sprout also has the most amazing flowers if you want to spruce up your house for the holidays with some arrangements. They’re open for pick up and local delivery!

Beautiful nail stickers!

Chill House

Chill House has anything and everything when it comes to self care, as they are a nail salon, massage parlor, lounge, and salon all in one. Give the gift of a membership, or shop their amazing products. They’ve organized their website based on who you’re shopping for (your bff, your mom, your coworker) and have some super awesome bundles. Our favorite is the self-care bundle which includes their “Chill Tips”, stunning stick on nail art with the COOLEST designs.

Books in all genres! BLM, sustainability, travel and more!

Mcnally Jackson

McNally Jackson is all about that #shoplocal life so let’s show some support by getting some of their books instead of Amazon! They have an amazing selection of books and stationary as well. The coolest part though? Shop books by any category (BLM, sustainability, travel, LGBTQ, etc) through their gift guide on their website.

Colorful, weird, and funky items!

Spark Pretty

Spark Pretty has some seriously funky statement pieces that you’re not going to find at your usual department store. One of our faves is a neon green fuzzy bucket hat with a matching mask! If you’re looking for some fun, affordable, and unique pieces head on over to Spark Pretty!

Those were just 10 out of the hundreds of small businesses that you can buy from in NYC this year! Click on some of our other favorite NYC Pao shops below to help #shopsmall this year!

Feng Swey

The Vintage Twin

Tula Plants & Design

Little Shop of Soil

Green Fingers Market

The Somerset House

Baggu

Gentle Monsters

Greenery Unlimited

Love Only NYC

Homecoming

Other Times Vintage

Peace & Rio

Stems Brooklyn

The Mask Bar Bleecker

Westsider Rare & Used Books Inc

If you want to see all the #paoworthy places that have been uploaded to Pao in NYC, click the button below!

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Anna Zervos

CEO

Anna graduated from UCLA in 2017 where she studied psychology and cognitive science. Her passion for travel, design, and psychology fuel her passion for Pao. On the Pao team she is in charge of feature development, business strategy, UI/UX, and big picture marketing strategies. Anna has been to over 40 countries and plans to keep that number growing. She hopes to inspire people to get outside their comfort zones and eventually give back to people who aren’t able to.

Favorite food

Tacos, burritos, nachos, quesadillas

Favorite band

The 1975

Favorite movie genre

Psychological horror/thriller

Favorite hobby

Singing and playing guitar

Favorite place in the world

Antipaxos, Greece

Sara Zervos

CFO

Sara is has a PhD in Economics and spent 22 years in the finance industry managing teams and over $20bn in assets. She is Pao’s CFO and CTO, and also spearheads business development and AI initiatives. She has traveled to over 57 countries, adores animals and the outdoors. Sara loves to connect with people and help them learn and strive to be their best selves.

Favorite food

Peanut Butter

Favorite band

P!nk

Favorite movie genre

Sci Fi

Favorite hobby

Salsa Dancing

Favorite place in the world

Kauai & New Zealand are tied