New Old Port shop focuses on fair-trade wares
Photo/Matt Dodge
Manager Heather Wothers stands in the new Ten Thousand Villages store, a fair-trade products retailer, in the Old Port
A new retailer to Portland's Old Port aims to get tourists thinking beyond the typical Maine souvenirs this summer, selling fair trade goods from artisans in poor and developing nations.
Ten Thousand Villages has expanded into Maine with a new location at 33 Exchange St. The Pennsylvania-based nonprofit fair-trade retailer has over 75 stores in the United States and Canada specializing in handmade gifts, jewelry, art, home goods and decor. The retailer opted to explore a new, tourist-friendly model with the Old Port location, according to store manager Heather Wothers.
Offering portable crafts and goods, the store caters to cruise ship passengers. "It's more along the lines of accessories and small knick-knacky type things -- it's a lot easier for a tourist to pack as opposed to a wicker chair," Wothers says.
Despite a recession that's squeezed many retailers, the fair-trade products industry is growing. Fair Trade Certified reported a 7% rise in fair-trade sales in 2009 with estimated sales of $1.2 billion, while grocery store sales of fair-trade products rose 24% in 2010, according to fair-trade market research firm SPINS.
Carrying exclusively fair-trade products, the shop hopes to draw in consumers increasingly concerned with where their goods come from, according to Wothers. "Portland seems to be that type of environment; we just seemed to fit right in," she says.
After two years of falling revenues in 2009 and 2010, Ten Thousand Villages saw a 6.7% increase in sales in fiscal year 2011, totaling nearly $25 million. The organization's e-commerce sales grew 21% in FY 2011, marking a two-year increase of more than 46%, according to its annual report. Ten Thousand Villages products were also sold at 351 fair trade and specialty shops and 74 craft festivals. The nonprofit purchased $7.2. million in goods and opened four new stores during FY 2011, according to the company. "Any profit is used to open stores or buy more from our artisans," says Wothers.
The organization strives for an equitable relationship with the estimated 123 artisan groups in 35 countries whose goods it sells, according to Wothers. "All of our prices are approved by the artisans. It's a fair trade, so we're happy they're happy and we pay them what they ask for upfront, no questions asked," she says.
Given the economic realities of many of the artisan groups, much of the work produced for Ten Thousand Villages is made from recycled material, including newspaper, magazines and glass or, in one case, discarded food. "A woman who lived near a stand that did fresh-squeezed orange juice and they would just toss their orange peels," says Wothers. "She got tired of seeing all the waste so she made little figurines out of them."
Though Wothers says Ten Thousand Villages is eager to aid enterprising artisans, its biggest hope is for artisans to no longer need help. "The best thing that could happen to us as a company is for an artisan to say, 'We really took off and we really just don't need your help anymore,'" Wothers says. "We might not carry that product anymore, but that artisan group has succeeded in what we set out to do."
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments