Fair trade shops keep up-to-date
If it's been a while since you shopped at a store like Ten Thousand Villages, you're in for a surprise.
These are not your mother's fair trade products.
Retailers hope you'll like their products for themselves - not just because purchasing them is a good deed.
Yes, there are still objects with the charm of rural crafts, woven from palm leaves or fashioned from waste materials like old newspapers. You might consider the word "primitive" when you are describing the style.
But sophistication has come to these shops.
Using local materials and traditional skills and most importantly receiving a fair price under good working conditions, artisans in developing countries are making products that do not scream do-gooder.
Ten Thousand Villages, for example, provides designers who help partners meet the latest home decor trends, said Lisa Stratton, marketing director.
And the products might not be more expensive than what you would find elsewhere.
While fair trade organizations need salable goods, their underlying motivation is to help people in developing countries.
And the bottom line for gift givers is more than just the gift.
We want to be close to our loved ones and give them something they will enjoy and can use. But at this time of year especially we also want to help less fortunate folk.
Purchasing fair trade gifts is one way to do both of these at the same time.
"People want to shop in places that are more in line with their values," said Stratton.
Fair trade organizations include the following:
• Ten Thousand Villages sells online at tenthousandvillages.com and at 155 shops, including one at 499C Pennsylvania Ave., Glen Ellyn, and The Wacker Building (Prairie Crossing), 960 Harris Road, Ste. 1B, Grayslake. Other shops are in Evanston, Oak Park and Rockford.
• Bright Hope works with very poor people and also has a Christian evangelical role. Goods are available at brighthope.org and in a shop at 2060 Stonington Ave., Hoffman Estates.
• Macy's started selling goods made by Rwandan women four years ago, and has expanded the program to include Cambodia and Indonesia. Items are available at Macys.com/betterworld and at the Macy's store at 111 N. State St., Chicago.