Fair Trade Store, a business committed to selling fair-trade products, hosted its grand opening Thursday at Civic Space Park near the Downtown campus.
The event included various activities such as storytelling and spoken-word poetry to attract people who were in the area for First Fridays to the nonprofit retailer.
Fair Trade Store sells fair-trade items ranging from handcrafted jewelry made in the Himalayas to clothing sewn in Mexico. All proceeds from the store’s sales are donated to Las Otras Hermanas and Karuna Village, two nonprofit organizations.
The store opened in September, but employees wanted everything to be running smoothly before the grand opening, said political science senior and store director Charis Elliott, who is also executive director of Las Otras Hermanas.
“We really wanted to make sure employees were able to talk about the fair-trade movement,” Elliott said. “We also wanted employees to be really educated about our specific products, like where the products are from and what they are made of.”
Elliott described fair trade as a system with principles to ensure products were not made in sweatshops or by children, but instead traded ethically with producers who receive wages they can live off of. The store sells a variety of goods including clothing, body care products, jewelry house-ware items, chocolate, toys and used books.
Employees at the grand opening told a children’s story they wrote themselves about a coal miner’s husband who was injured. They are working on illustrations and hope to have a limited edition published within a year.
“There aren’t a lot of stories that talk about fair trade, so we wanted to find a way to relate fair trade to children,” Elliott said.
Middle-school-aged volunteers from Boys Hope, Girls Hope, a local nonprofit organization that provides educational opportunities for low-income but academically capable youth, worked at the opening.
Prior to the grand opening, they were educated about fair trade, and then at the event some students handed out fliers while others worked in the store answering questions from customers about products and about fair trade.
Boys Hope, Girls Hope program assistant Mia Foster said she wanted the students to get involved with the more family-oriented part of First Fridays.
“The kids have been learning about fair trade and what it means, so this gave them a great opportunity to share their knowledge with the community,” Foster said. “A lot of people came by who hadn’t heard of fair trade, and it was neat for them to able to tell what they’ve learned.”
The students normally do community service but mostly at homeless shelters and soup kitchens, she said, making this a unique community service activity for them.
“It was really cool for them to be able to do something completely different than what they normally do,” Foster said. “The fact that they were able to tack on knowledge they recently acquired only made it that much better.”
Sustainability sophomore Kim Pearson said she was impressed with how the students were able to interact with community members.
“When I was in the store, I heard the kids telling customers about each item,” she said. “I think it’s awesome they were able to participate in the fair-trade movement. It shows how this is a subject that does affect people of all ages and people of all ages can make a difference.”
Pearson, who is the president of ASU’s chapter of the student organization United Students for Fair Trade, and a volunteer in the store, also said she was impressed with how much the students cared.
“Most kids in America often have a better life than those that the fair trade movement is trying to help,” Pearson said. “I think it’s extremely powerful that not only were these kids passionate about the movement, but they wanted to share the passion with the community.”
Foster said the kids enjoyed the grand opening and learning about fair trade.
“[One of the students] said he wants to come back every Friday night,” Foster said. “I’m glad they were able to be at the grand opening, and I have a feeling some of them will be back.”
