Sunday, November 12, 2006
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Huntsville Times Article
The Huntsville Times ran an article on our store on November 10 which was much appreciated and helpful. Our sales were over $2000 the day it came out in the morning paper. Thank you Yvonne. Following is the text of the article. The paper had some great colored pictures.
Trade-Fair
Hand-crafted items from around the world make nonprofit store a popular place to shop
Friday, November 10, 2006
By YVONNE BETOWT
Times Staff Writer yvonne.betowt@htimes.com
Voncile Raynor of Atlanta came to Huntsville recently for two reasons - to visit her friend Shirley McCormick and to shop at the new Trade-Fair Marketplace on Regal Drive. "I talked to Shirley and she told me about the store," Raynor said. "I was interested in the concept and wanted to check it out. What a wonderful thing they are doing."
Trade-Fair Marketplace is not a new concept, although it is Huntsville's first fair-trade store and Alabama's first nonprofit fair-trade store. The state's other fair-trade store, Sojourns, is a for-profit enterprise in Birmingham.
Trade-Fair Marketplace stocks hand-crafted merchandise made by artisans from throughout the world. The items, which range from pottery to purses, are sold to several nonprofit organizations such as Ten Thousand Villages, which pay artisans a fair wage for their crafts.
After receiving the products at its U.S. warehouse, Ten Thousand Villages ships them to fair-trade stores throughout the United States and Canada.
Trade-Fair Marketplace, the brainchild of Huntsville businesswoman Linda Worley, uses only volunteer help in the store. Volunteers are asked to commit to two four-hour shifts a month.
The store, which shares space with Classic Hair Beauty Salon, officially opened Oct. 2. The week before it opened for business, Trade-Fair Marketplace took in $1,500 in sales, mostly from volunteer workers and patrons at the beauty salon. The first two weeks of business, the store averaged about $350 a day. By week four, it was up to $450 per day.
"I'm really pleased with the response," said Worley, who owns the building on Regal Drive as well as Patches and Stitches. "I think it will pick up at least through Christmas. The biggest problem we've had is keeping merchandise on the shelves."
Trade-Fair Marketplace has no advertising budget, but Worley said "word has been spreading like wildfire. All of our advertising has been by word of mouth. We really appreciate the beauty salon customers. They've been telling everyone about us."
The fair-trade concept began 60 years ago when Edna Ruth Byler, a volunteer with the Mennonite Central Committee, met several female seamstresses in a sewing class in Puerto Rico. She was so impressed by their needlepoint work, she purchased a number of items to take back to the U.S. to sale. The items were so popular with friends and neighbors, Byler began adding crafts from artisans in other countries and selling them from the trunk of her car.
Her fair-trade project developed into Selfhelp Crafts, which was adopted by the Mennonite Central Committee, an advocacy group for peace through nonviolent means and social justice. The project name was changed to Ten Thousand Villages in 1996.
The fair-trade group has been financially independent of the mother organization since April 1, 2000, when MCC gave Ten Thousand Villages a one-time $500,000 grant to strengthen its financial position.
Ten Thousand Villages is still listed on MCC's financial report "because we own them," said MCC spokesman Larry Guengerich. But "not one cent from (Ten Thousand Villages) is used by MCC." Lisa Stratton, marketing manager of Ten Thousand Villages, agrees. "None of the Ten Thousand Villages money goes to the MCC advocacy work," she said, "and they don't supplement the work we do."
As she left for Atlanta, Raynor said she will definitely be back to shop at Trade-Fair Marketplace. In the meantime, she may want to check out the Ten Thousand Villages store in Atlanta. It's a lot closer to home.
Trade-Fair
Hand-crafted items from around the world make nonprofit store a popular place to shop
Friday, November 10, 2006
By YVONNE BETOWT
Times Staff Writer yvonne.betowt@htimes.com
Voncile Raynor of Atlanta came to Huntsville recently for two reasons - to visit her friend Shirley McCormick and to shop at the new Trade-Fair Marketplace on Regal Drive. "I talked to Shirley and she told me about the store," Raynor said. "I was interested in the concept and wanted to check it out. What a wonderful thing they are doing."
Trade-Fair Marketplace is not a new concept, although it is Huntsville's first fair-trade store and Alabama's first nonprofit fair-trade store. The state's other fair-trade store, Sojourns, is a for-profit enterprise in Birmingham.
Trade-Fair Marketplace stocks hand-crafted merchandise made by artisans from throughout the world. The items, which range from pottery to purses, are sold to several nonprofit organizations such as Ten Thousand Villages, which pay artisans a fair wage for their crafts.
After receiving the products at its U.S. warehouse, Ten Thousand Villages ships them to fair-trade stores throughout the United States and Canada.
Trade-Fair Marketplace, the brainchild of Huntsville businesswoman Linda Worley, uses only volunteer help in the store. Volunteers are asked to commit to two four-hour shifts a month.
The store, which shares space with Classic Hair Beauty Salon, officially opened Oct. 2. The week before it opened for business, Trade-Fair Marketplace took in $1,500 in sales, mostly from volunteer workers and patrons at the beauty salon. The first two weeks of business, the store averaged about $350 a day. By week four, it was up to $450 per day.
"I'm really pleased with the response," said Worley, who owns the building on Regal Drive as well as Patches and Stitches. "I think it will pick up at least through Christmas. The biggest problem we've had is keeping merchandise on the shelves."
Trade-Fair Marketplace has no advertising budget, but Worley said "word has been spreading like wildfire. All of our advertising has been by word of mouth. We really appreciate the beauty salon customers. They've been telling everyone about us."
The fair-trade concept began 60 years ago when Edna Ruth Byler, a volunteer with the Mennonite Central Committee, met several female seamstresses in a sewing class in Puerto Rico. She was so impressed by their needlepoint work, she purchased a number of items to take back to the U.S. to sale. The items were so popular with friends and neighbors, Byler began adding crafts from artisans in other countries and selling them from the trunk of her car.
Her fair-trade project developed into Selfhelp Crafts, which was adopted by the Mennonite Central Committee, an advocacy group for peace through nonviolent means and social justice. The project name was changed to Ten Thousand Villages in 1996.
The fair-trade group has been financially independent of the mother organization since April 1, 2000, when MCC gave Ten Thousand Villages a one-time $500,000 grant to strengthen its financial position.
Ten Thousand Villages is still listed on MCC's financial report "because we own them," said MCC spokesman Larry Guengerich. But "not one cent from (Ten Thousand Villages) is used by MCC." Lisa Stratton, marketing manager of Ten Thousand Villages, agrees. "None of the Ten Thousand Villages money goes to the MCC advocacy work," she said, "and they don't supplement the work we do."
As she left for Atlanta, Raynor said she will definitely be back to shop at Trade-Fair Marketplace. In the meantime, she may want to check out the Ten Thousand Villages store in Atlanta. It's a lot closer to home.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
First Month
What a great ending for our first month. We had in excess of $10,000 in sales which means we would be empty now had we not restocked for that is about the amount of merchandise we started with. I have been ordering from all our accounts about once a week and am adding new items to each order.
We are now getting ready for our Grand Opening/Party on Saturday November 11 from 2:00 until we run out of food and/or mercahndise. Say a little pray for good weather for we are planning to have most of the party outside on the porch/sidewalk. Our 400 square foot store will not hold many people. We will be serving some of the food products that we sell from the Women's Bean Project. We will have lots Christmas ornaments and Nativities as well as great gift suggestions.
So come on down on the 11th and bring your friends.
Linda
We are now getting ready for our Grand Opening/Party on Saturday November 11 from 2:00 until we run out of food and/or mercahndise. Say a little pray for good weather for we are planning to have most of the party outside on the porch/sidewalk. Our 400 square foot store will not hold many people. We will be serving some of the food products that we sell from the Women's Bean Project. We will have lots Christmas ornaments and Nativities as well as great gift suggestions.
So come on down on the 11th and bring your friends.
Linda
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