SHOP “GLOCAL” WITH A PURPOSE AT THE FAIR TRADE LONG BEACH RETAIL STORE
By John Grossi
If you’re looking for a meaningful and unique shopping experience in Long Beach, The Fair Trade Long Beach Retail Collective fits the bill. Founder Teresa Baxter describes her store as providing an opportunity to shop “glocal,” where consumers make both local and global impacts with every purchase.
Walking through Fair Trade, one discovers a treasure trove of hand-crafted gifts, kitchenware, clothing, and home accessories sourced from all over the world.
The store may be small, but it is stocked to the brim with high shelves and racks carrying hundreds of unique items curated by its 20 local partners. If you allow yourself 15 minutes to wander carefully through the whole space, you most certainly will find something wonderful and unique.
Your shopping experience at Fair Trade becomes even more meaningful once you understand the philosophy and stories behind its products. The Fair Trade Long Beach Retail Store is this magical little corner store where each unique item emanates an incredible passion and purpose that can be traced to the exact person who made it.
That’s right—while the word handcrafted gets thrown around a lot—the items at Fair Trade actually ARE handcrafted… by families all over the globe (including Long Beach), trying to make a better life for themselves.
How The Shop Works
Each area of the store belongs to a different “partner” in the collective. The 20 partners, while sharing a commitment to ethical work conditions that fight exploitation and enslavement across the globe, offer an array of items uniquely varied, broad-ranging, and personal.
Some vendors make their own products locally while many act as conduits of trade between their country of origin and their Long Beach customers. Whether they are selling products from Latin America, Asia, or Africa, each vendor knows exactly from whence their products originated. Often sale of these goods contributes towards helping families escape factory-work exploitation. The Fair Trade vendors carry a chip on their shoulders, being familiar with the treacherous economic realities of the regions from which they source. They are fighting tooth and nail to make the world a better place in whatever small tangible way they can.
It’s not an easy fight, nor an easy cause to profit from, but Fair Trade is the mighty little store that allows these dreamers and doers to band together and fight for their cause. You will catch founder Teresa standing behind her counter almost every waking hour– especially during their extended holiday hours– a living and breathing example of what “conscious consumerism” looks like. She knows the stories behind each of her products and has dedicated her life over the past two decades to being part of this cause, bringing dignity and independence to laborers across the globe.
In addition to offering products that are created and traded ethically, a majority of vendors at Fair Trade also offer “giveback products.” This means that when you buy one of their items, you not only support the global family who made it and the local vendor who imported it, but a portion of the profit will go back into the community to fight a cause such as human trafficking and enslavement.
The more you ask about each item you find at Fair Trade, the more you realize that “purpose and passion” are flowing out of every corner of the brick and mortar.
The Holidays At Fair Trade
“The holidays are especially magical here because we are such a global shop,” says Teresa. “Imagine seeing an array of Christmas and Hanukkah items from all over the globe in one little shop, it’s really stunning. You could buy an ornament made from recycled oil drums in Haiti or a nativity scene from Ecuador beautifully hand-carved from palm nuts, in addition to so many of our best-selling gifts and accessories all year long.”
Starting November 11th and running through Christmas Eve, the shop is open seven days a week. Monday-Saturday from 11am-7pm and Sunday from 11am-4pm, but as Teresa puts it, “If people are shopping, I’ll stay open.”
The Fair Trade Long Beach Retail Collective: 4105 N. Bellflower Blvd Unit B, 90808
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