Villages Goods

Talk about being ahead of the times. Decades before fair trade became a trendy buzz phrase, Ten Thousand Villages had been practicing that form of commercial exchange, dealing with independent artisans from developing countries and making their wares available in North America.

“It took quite a while for it to be called fair trade,” said Roberta Taylor, manager of the Edmonton location of Ten Thousand Villages, one of 37 stores across Canada. “One of the big things was the recognition of inequality; that larger growth in difference between the extremely rich and the extremely poor.”

It was a gap that was recognized as early as 1946, when a Kansas-based Mennonite volunteer started selling wares made by artisans in Puerto Rico out of the trunk of her car. Over the years, the suppliers grew internationally and so did her Ten Thousand Villages operation. After forming a partnership with the Mennonite Central Committee, the company sold more than $25 million in goods annually by 2008. It now has more than 100 stores across North America selling products from artisans in 35 countries.