Trade Fair Marketplace

Where has the Year Gone

2008-09-09T12:17:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it is September and I have not posted since January.

Trade Fair continues to exceed our expectations. Sales have continued to be good through the Summer months. We participated in the Artwalk and had average sales of about $550 for each the three events.

As more people learn of our efforts, we are seeing more and more new faces in the shop. We are looking forward to a good holiday season.

Two big news events for the year so far:

We are now a 501(c)(3) non profit organization.

We have been able to make three more significant donations. We contributed $5000 to each of the following organizations.

CENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE: To promote and provide community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Central Asia.
Their website is http://www.ikat.org/.

CARE: A leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. They work alongside women because they believe women, equipped with the proper resources, have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty. Women are at the heart of CARE’s efforts to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters.
Their website is http://www.care.org/.

FINA: International provides financial services to the world's lowest-income entrepreneurs so they can create jobs, build assets and improve their standard of living. We target the poorest of the working poor: those who have the least access to services such as loans, savings programs, and insurance. Our clients include women, who make up 70 percent of the world's poor; individuals unable to find work in the formal sector; families displaced by war and internal conflict; the rural poor; and those affected by chronic poverty. With more than 20 years' experience and over 500,000 clients on four continents, FINCA offers a proven solution to poverty. According to their website, $5,000 can sponsor a Village Bank in a region where FINCA currently operates. The web site is http://www.villagebanking.org/

Thanks for your interest in our effort to help alleviate poverty through "fair trade" practices.

Linda

Happy New Year 2008

2008-01-08T18:53:00.000-08:00

We have made it through the busiest retail time of the year. Thanks to all of our great volunteers, we had a great last quarter. Our sales were almost $60,000.

The best news of all is that our board met in November and voted to make the following contributions:

Heifer Project ( $10,000) - whose mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth. They do this with a simple idea of giving families a source of food (animals) rather than short-term relief and the families then pass the gift on by giving away offsprings of their animals.

India Cyclone Relief ($10,000) -In mid-November, Bangladesh was devastated by Cyclone Sidr, which killed more than 3,400 people and affected nearly 4 million others. Worst hit was the country's southern coastal strip, and many of our artisan partners have been severely impacted by the disaster - some have been made homeless. We have sent money to assist in rebuilding.

We are looking forward to a great 2008.

First Anniversary

2007-10-01T17:40:00.000-07:00

We just celebrated our first anniversay with a Volunteer Appreciation Reception at the shop. We had a great first year. Our sales were is excess of $112,000. That is an average of over $2000 per week or $360 per day. We started out with less than $10,000 of operating capital. Most of our expenses are for goods which means we turned our merchandise about 10 times which is phenomenal.

Half of our sales were in the months of October, November and December. This is typical in the retail gift market. This means we are headed into a busy time. We have got in a lot of Christmas ornament and nativities and they are already getting a lot of attention.

Sailing Through Summer

2007-06-24T17:58:00.000-07:00

We have been cruising along for the first six month of 2007 averaging about $1000 each week in sales but we may have turned the corner. We just completed a great week at the marketplace. The great article that Beth Thames wrote in the Huntsville Times on Sunday June 17th (see below) really brought out the shoppers. Our sales exceeded $3000 this week which is our best since Christmas.

We also had a great response at the ArtWalk/ArtStroll downtown around the square on Thursday night. We had sale of over $700 for this event. We will be participating is this event every third Thursday through September. I think we may be starting the downhill (or is it uphill?) run to Christmas. I heard a couple of shoppers this week say they were buying for Christmas presents.

Shoppers at this market also toss lifeline to poor

Sunday, June 17, 2007
Huntsville Times
Attention shoppers: There's an alternative to the mall, the big-box store and the chain shops. It's called Trade Fair Marketplace, and it's right here in Huntsville.
Linda Worley opened this non-profit gift store in the fall of 2006 when she learned about fair trade - a global movement that compensates artisans from all over the world for their handmade goods. Fair trade insures that workers net 15-to-20 percent for the baskets, necklaces or pottery they've made. If you live in a developing country, squeezing by on a dollar a day, that 20 percent may be your lifeline.

Robin Sells, a volunteer at Trade Fair, says all staff members work for free. "We work two four-hour shifts a month. We don't get paid, but we believe in what we're doing," she says. "This store has changed people's lives."

One example of a changed life comes from Uganda, where a widow living in a 5- by 10-foot home had to give up her oldest son to a children's home. She had no money to feed him. Through Beadforlife, a fair trade organization which claims to "eradicate poverty one bead at a time," she learned to make beads out of recycled paper and to craft bracelets and necklaces.
Not only was she able to get her son back (fair trade companies pay as soon as workers make the goods), she was also able to enlarge her house and make room for a baby that police had found in a dumpster. She named the abandoned baby "Gift from God."
The Trade Fair Marketplace is a colorful hodgepodge of silver jewelry from Bangladesh, pottery bowls from Vietnam, elephant grass baskets from Ghana, and children's puppets from Peru. Scarves, handbags and carefully crafted metal objects from Haiti (Haitian workers recycle oil drums and pound them into wall hangings, Robin explains) decorate the walls.
Not all of the workers represented are from developing countries; some are from right here at home: The Women's Bean Project, a fair trade company in Denver, sells bean soups, sweets, coffee and bread mixes. It gives poor women a chance to learn a trade, keep a job and, in come cases, come in off the streets and smell the coffee.
Some shoppers come in to buy end-of-year gifts for teachers. One bride bought her bridesmaids gifts at Trade Fair. "The gifts are unique, very inexpensive, and you're improving someone's life," Robin says. Trade Fair does not advertise - that's too expensive - so most shoppers find out about the store through the oldest marketing ploy in the world: word of mouth. Volunteers also take the handmade items to local civic groups, to the recent downtown Arts Stroll, and anywhere they can to let people know they are here.
It seems to be working. Last Christmas, the first holiday season the store was opened, the gifts flew off the shelves. "I'm the receiving department," Robin says, "and I barely had time to put things on the shelf before they were gone."
One new idea Trade Fair is trying is the Birthday Club. You come in, sign up, and when you get a birthday card from Trade Fair you will get 20 percent off your next shopping trip there anytime during your birthday month.
There is a sign outside the Trade Fair Marketplace. It reads, "Hope and dignity with each purchase." I'm not sure any other store in town can make that guarantee.
Trade Fair, located in the lobby of Classic Hair and Nails on Regal Drive, is opened from 9 till 5, Monday through Saturday.

Huntsville resident Beth Thames is a freelance writer and an English instructor at Calhoun Community College. You can contact her at Beth.Thames@knology.net. She is taking a couple of weeks off, but her column will return on July 8.

© 2007 The Huntsville Times. All rights reserved.

Trinity Marketplace

2007-03-07T18:06:00.000-08:00

We had a booth at the Trinity Marketplace this past weekend. Our booth looked great and we had sales of ~$1300. Much thanks to Shirley, Alice, Barbara, Robin, Diane R, and Judy for manning the booth. The other good to come out of this effort is the exposure we received. We gave out lots of brochures and are already seeing an increase in traffic in the store as a result.

We have a new sign going up real soon. It will be under the signs of the other three tenants in the building and will be more visible from the street.

I know some of the volunteers have been a little bored since the pretty weather has begun. Slow retail is "par for the course" in the spring when people start working in their yards and doing more outside activities. When the temperature get up in the 80's and 90's, they will be back.

We have lots of pretty crosses, cards and ornaments for Easter. Keep spreading the word.

Linda

Spring is Coming!

2007-02-16T17:23:00.000-08:00

Things are still going great at the Trade Fair Marketplace thanks to about 40 very dedicated and dependable volunteers. We have made a few changes and added some new shelves that my husband Eugene made. I have to give him credit so he will make some more later on.

Obviously sales slowed down considerable after the holidays. We averaged between $1100 - $1200 a week in January and it looks like February will do a little better.

We have signed up for the Trinity Marketplace the first weekend in March. This is a art/craft festival they have at Trinity Methodist Church each year to raise money for their missions programs. We thought it would be a good way to sell some products as well as spread the word about “fair trade”.

As you can see from the photos, we have some Easter things out. One of our new volunteers made the pictures.

We are working on getting a bigger sign for better visibility from the street.

Come check out our spring stuff.

Linda

Happy New Year

2007-01-02T20:03:00.000-08:00

WOW, what a run we have had since our open house. We had $4000 in sales at our open house and it did not slow down until after Christmas. We ended up the year with over $56,000 in sales, not bad for a small new store.

The volunteers were all just wonderful and the customers seemed genuinely excited that we were open. I heard recently that shoppers want more than just to buy something, they want an experience. Hopefully we are providing that.

We are getting re-stocked and ready for Valentines Day and Spring.

Keep spreading the word and remember to check out the Trade Fair Marketplace when you need a gift.

Linda

Pictures from the open house Saturday

2006-11-12T13:12:00.000-08:00

Huntsville Times Article

2006-11-11T05:30:00.000-08:00

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.

First Month

2006-11-02T06:25:00.000-08:00

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

Still Going Strong

2006-10-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

We had another great week which is quite remarkable since our inventory was quite low. We averaged $450 per day.

Thankfully we got in three shipments on Thursday and Friday so we have some great new merchandise. We got several nativities as well as some nativity ornaments.

We also got in some more coffee and items from the Women's Bean Project.

Everyone continues to be excited about the store and are spreading the word.

More later,
Linda

Second Week

2006-10-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

We have finished our second week and it was even better than the first. We averaged $400 per day this week. If we continue to grow by 14% each week, we will be taking over the mall in a year. Thanks to all of you who are telling your friends and handing out our brochures.

Some higher power seems to be involved in the ordering of products. On more than one occasion we got something that we didn't order (we either put down a wrong item number or just mis-communicated on the phone) and decided to keep the item/items rather than send them back. They usually sell the day we put them out.

We are selling items both great and small, anywhere from a $275 table to a $2.00 smooth stone with an inspirational word inscribed on it. The goldfish paperweights and onyx candleholder are emerging as top sellers.

We are planning a Grand Opening Party on November 11. I will write more about that later.

Hope to see you soon at the Trade Fair Marketplace.

Linda

Pictures at Trade Fair

2006-10-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

First Week

2006-10-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

I don't know about the other volunteers, but I had a great time this week. It was fun learning about all the merchandise and visiting with the customer as well as the other volunteers. Did you know that Becky Harchanko regularly takes 50 mile bike rides, that Carol Jones has a sister 20 years older than she or that Cathy Hough has so many cats they have their own house.

We averaged $350 each day. I am thrilled with those numbers. They far exceed my expectations. I think these numbers will improve as more people hear about us. The challenge ahead is to keep the inventory fresh and plentiful.

The beans from the Women's Bean Project have been a favorite with the customers. We do like to eat, don't we. At least beans are good for us. I have tried two of the soup mixes and one of the cookie mixes. They were delicious.

Keep spreading the word.

Linda

Opening Day

2006-10-02T17:15:00.000-07:00

We have finally made it to the starting line and are off and running. We had a good day with several customers. We sold about 40 items and had receipts of about $500. I think that is a great start. We have placed two more orders for some more merchandise. All of the little red cat purses are gone and all of the small onyx candles. Everyone seems genuinely excited about the quality of the merchandise. They almost all comment about Christmas shopping so we should have a good holiday season.

The florist showed up about mid morning with a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my sister-in-law and her family. She is the one who first introduced me to "fair trade" almost 10 years ago. Thanks, Martha

Linda

Ready at Last

2006-09-27T19:46:00.001-07:00

We are ready to open at last!!! The customers from the beauty shop along with some of our volunteers that came for the Tuesday night orientation have purchased about $250 already. Everyone seems very excited. I hope we don't sell out the first week. Actually that would be awesome, wouldn't it. I panicked last night and put in another order to Greater Gifts. It seems I had not ordered some of the things on the list in the first order. This was actually a good thing because I had gotten notice yesterday that we can now order chocolate. It seems that we cannot order chocolate in the summer time because it will melt. We should have a lot of traffic the next three day. The ladies at the beauty shop said that they have about 100 customers on Friday.

I am very pleased with how the shop looks and how smoothly things seems to be going.

Linda

Setting Up Shop

2006-09-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

Janet and her elves have been working their magic on the shop space and boy is it looking great. There were five or six of us who worked most of the day unpacking, hanging shelves, arranging and re-arranging. It was tiring but great fun.

Tomorrow night we will start our staff orientation. I think the volunteers will be excited when they see all the wonderful merchandise. I can't wait to get started.

Linda

Getting Ready to Open, At Last

2006-09-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

A group of ladies met on Regal Drive yesterday to unpack the Ten Thousand Village order. We now have all of our initial merchandise in house, except coffee. It is coming from a roaster in Leeds, Alabama just east of Birmingham. Their name is Higher Grounds. Isn't that a neat name for a fair trade coffee roaster?

Janet Towery and her helpers are on schedule to start setting up the store on Sunday. I can't wait to see all the merchandise on display. In general, it is very colorful, so it should be a feast for the eyes when it is all set up.

We will be open for business on Monday October 2. I am excited.

Linda