Turning Travel Cases and Bags into a Fair Trade Expression

It’s amazing when you think about it, how much stuff we carry with us when we travel a short ways for a gym workout or on a long vacation journey abroad. Of course there are purses for women (and shoulder bags for men) that hold the objects that travel with us. But beyond purses, there are dozens of cases, bags, totes and luggage that come along with us draped on our shoulders, or stored in airplane bins. Many of these items are now available in fair trade, eco friendly versions that are beautifully hand crafted by skilled artisans. Now, your carrying cases and luggage can not only reflect your travel taste and persona but also declare you’re practicing socially conscious buying—even as you travel to many of the countries these products are made in.

Kids are getting in on the action for fair trade school bags, asking their moms to get them one, or their moms starting to teach their children well about social responsibility in today’s global economy.

Yoga is still one of the fastest growing exercise/relaxation pursuits and nothing captures the ethical underpinnings of yoga better than having a yoga mat carrying case that’s fair trade and hand made.

From laptop carrying cases, to toiletry bags, to weekender bags, the new fashion trend for both travelers and those of us that are simply schlepping our belongings, is to have products that pay their crafters fairly, make sure they have very good working conditions and that the entire process is environmentally friendly.

We have all these cases and totes and bags at Shopping for aChange in gorgeous color selections and great prices. The quality is superb and truly meant to be long lasting.

If you’re shopping for Spring, please take a moment to browse through our jewelry and accessory collections which are among the best curated collections available. Remember, we are nonprofit, and more of your purchase dollars go to the artisans and their community improvement projects.

Please pin us on Pinterest, like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

How Wearing or Using Fair Trade Cottage Industry Unites Us

In today’s world of instant communication, pictures, videos, opinions, news (not only in hard news but among our circle of friends or interests), a lot of thinkers feel the global community has grown closer together. It is more unified. Yet, techno-communications aside, there are actually larger forces drawing ethnic, lingual and economic groups into a single entity. One of these forces is fair trade, not only fair trade food stuffs, but fair trade fashion, accessories, jewelry and home decor products.

The nature of shopping and buying fair trade (which is also usually eco friendly) is that it transforms our consciousness, it changes our perceptions more powerfully than a passive receiving of news or a reach out to a friend. In fair trade we are actually making a very real difference in the lives of the artisans who craft the products. These are people we will never meet, yet feel vicariously close to as we shop for and purchase the products made by their hands. In a real sense we participate in their lives. And, of course, we are helping to improve their lives. The interesting aspect of fair trade is that it is so truly global, from so many countries on so many continents. There is the catch phrase “socially conscious” which signifies part of this unifying process. Finally, some of the world’s largest companies such as Walmart and Apple have taken aggressive steps to change their business ethos, that once gave little thought to ethics and social consciousness. A push for that change was public driven, after consumers became more educated and sensitive to all that’s involved before a product reaches their hands.

Buying fair trade fashion, jewelry, accessories, baby items or home décor means far more than the act of consumer purchasing. It is a profound participation in a new paradigm, even a new responsibility as the world becomes more ethically conscious of itself. 

Please check out our latest products as we offer fresh items for the spring and summer. Our jewelry and accessory selections are among the best curated collections available. Remember, we are nonprofit, and more of your purchase dollars goes to the artisans and their community improvement projects.

Please pin us on Pinterest, like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Fair Trade Fashion, Accessory and Décor Shopping—Generation Z Jumping In

While the fair trade shopping movement for fashion, accessories, jewelry, and home décor is certainly cross generational in terms of baby boomers, post baby boomers, millennials and Generation Z (born 1990 and onwards) there are certain pointers that state Gen Z may be a break out consumer demographic for ethical and eco friendly purchasing.

Jennifer Nini in her blog made several points on the buying mindset of Generation Z.

They are looking for meaningful experience. Rather than just getting a job for the money, many Gen Zs are seeking meaning in their livelihood and a purpose in their life other than being consumers. Part of their value systems are socially responsible partnerships.

While millennials were likely to have inheritances coming their way (from baby boomer or post baby boomer parents) Generation Z is not in the inheritance cycle, or much less so. They have less spare cash and are therefore more careful and choosy in their shopping, and are also more satisfied with having less. And that less should contribute to their worldview.

Gen Z is living authentically. Buying habits are shifting to real handmade, to real ecologically friendly, to real economic fairness. Coolness is in for second hand apparel that is effectively recycled and bragging about it, or jewelry and accessories made from recycled materials.

No matter your generation or your age, if you’re aware of the power of fair trade in terms of a new consumer paradigm and a socially conscious philosophical statement you’ll be very interested in our SFAC collections. For the upcoming summer, we’ve got great jewelry and accessory collections and we have the best sales on the internet. Come in to our nonprofit online store, and enjoy the difference.

Please pin us on Pinterest, like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Fair Trade Entrepreneur Stacey Horowitz Talks 5 Ways for Social Good

In the world of fair trade jewelry, accessories or home décor (and other cottage manufactured products) there is a lot of good being done socially, economically and environmentally. That’s why fair trade is referred to as socially conscious and eco friendly. It is a business model that has a conscience.

Stacey Horowitz, CEO and founder of Shopping for a Change, recently wrote an article for entrepreneur.com on “5 Ways to Integrate Social Good into Your Business.” The following is a digest of the full article that is here (link).

1. Start with a strategy: Assess your brand‘s mission, values, products, services and stakeholders. How is what you’re already doing contributing to society? How can you take that one step further? Or: What needs fixing?

2. Make friends: If you’re not ready to develop your own cause-driven program from scratch, a good alternative is to develop partnerships with existing charities. Twillory, an online men’s clothing retailer, partnered with Career Gear -- a charity that helps men in need get back into and succeed in the workforce -- to develop a clothes-repurposing program.

3. Engage your employees: What do IBM, Dell and PNC all have in common? Probably several things, but what's most important is that they offer paid time off for employees to volunteer. Commonly referred to as VTO, volunteer time off lets employees give back to their communities in an outlet of their choosing. From helping repaint schools to offering pro bono consulting, employee volunteers could be diversifying your company’s outreach, as well.

4. Assume responsibility: As you would for any other business agenda, track the progress of your initiatives to assess whether you’re meeting your goals. Instead of allowing your mission to fizzle out mid-year -- like a New Year’s resolution -- develop a method for seeing that your social good efforts are maintained. Sometimes, that means putting one person, or team in charge of social programs, or being prepared to wear many hats.

5. Take it slowly: In the end, any step you take toward helping solve a social problem or genuinely giving back to the community is itself a social good. So, take things slowly, act responsibly and do what is most meaningful to your brand, consumers and employees; in no time, you’ll see the difference.

At SFAC, along with the social good we’re consciously practicing, we are also striving to bring you the best fair trade products available anywhere, including baby gift items, or the latest in a fun spring look in fair trade eco friendly accessories. You will also find great bargains in our clearance sale.

Fair Trade Candles Made with Rubble from Haiti 2010 Earthquake

It’s not often that we have an opportunity to participate in a project and fair trade product that has so much pathos and meaning. One of the new products we’ve recently added to our online SFAC store does carry such meaningful weight, in the form of candles inset into strikingly beautiful holders crafted from Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake. The candles are made by Haitian artisans associated with Prosperity Candle and Prosperity Catalyst, two nonprofits dedicated to the continuing rebuilding of lives in Haiti—including women entrepreneurs. The candles symbolize light from darkness and a brighter future ahead. The blog site for Prosperity Candle says, “Turning these blocks into smooth candle holders is a slow process done entirely by hand from start to finish. No two pieces are exactly the same depending on the material we receive.”

There are two main styles: Pillar, and Centerpiece. Each candle is produced expressly for you, according to your choice of style, color, and fragrance—made from concrete rubble. Votive candles fit into the three receptacle holes lined with recycled aluminum.

We’re always adding to our store collections so we invite you to check back often to see what’s fresh and exciting. For this month, take a look at the Jewelry and Accessories pages. Always fair trade, eco friendly green, handmade, and socially conscious.

Like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Millennials Shopping Fair Trade Products With Individualistic Mindset

The big box or upscale brick and mortar retail stores are feeling the impact of millennial generation shoppers looking for more targeted, niche, extraordinary shopping of clothing, accessories, jewelry, home décor, and more at very specialized online stores. Millennials (and other shopping demographics) are looking for higher quality brands and more interesting, engaging products. That’s part of the reason why Shopping for a Change exists: to provide shoppers with superb quality, originally designed, fair trade products that are individualistic and socially conscious.

A story in the San Francisco Chronicle titled “Millennial Shoppers Embrace Rebranded Basics” talked about the new individualization and branding trend: “A new generation of consumers is rethinking the way that they buy stuff,” says Jess Lee, who co-founded women’s lifestyle brand Modern Citizen online in 2014 after three years at Gap’s strategy and business development division. “It’s a very different story now. It’s very individual and very me-centric. ‘This is who I am. This is what I look like. And these are the brands that cater to me.’”

We feel that Millennials and other generational shoppers who are looking for a brand or individual look will find our items very appealing. Each item is handmade, and originally designed, plus being eco friendly.

We always have great prices for handmade fair trade products at our Clearance sale page, and throughout our site If you’re looking for baby or toddler products, please click here. And our Jewelry collection, like everything else, is curated, extensive, and unique.

Please visit us frequently during 2016 as new selections will arrive throughout the year. Like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

The New Shopping Paradigm: Fair Trade and Crafted by Hand

Handmade as a defining shopping paradigm is in, and fair trade cottage industry manufacturing is driving it. Even the US State Department is recognizing this, as a NPR story last month talked about Secretary of State John Kerry promoting small cottage industries that make well-crafted products by hand. And now with the fair trade momentum making handmade goods (that are paid fairly) available everywhere (including online, such as our Shopping for a Change store), the shift to Western affluent nations buying hand crafted goods is becoming a very large metric.

In Kerry’s talks, he emphasizes that the hand crafted industries found in 3 continents (and now involves hundreds of companies and organizations) has the potential to improve the lives of the individuals who make them. And that is the purpose of fair trade—to provide a global market for the goods, and a living wage for the artisans crafting the goods.

Kerry said in the story, "Consumers today care more and more about where something comes from, who produced it, under what conditions did they produce it."

A growing number of Americans, says Tori Mellott, senior editor at Traditional Home, are looking for something that's got a human touch behind it: "We live in a world of plastic and screens. We want something personal." And products that can both support craftspeople and be practical for the customer pack the ultimate "double punch."

We’re proud to be a part of this growing trend and movement, and we’re proud to be nonprofit, which means more of the dollars coming in for purchasing our goods goes back to the artisans and their communities.

We always have great prices for handmade fair trade products at our Clearance sale page (link). Among the most popular items consumers purchase as hand crafted are jewelry and accessories, and we encourage you to browse our collections.

Please visit us frequently during 2016 as new selections will arrive throughout the year. Like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Our Fair Trade Store Helps With Nutrition in the Amazon

One of the ethical advantages of shopping at the Shopping for a Change online fair trade store is that we are nonprofit. In terms of amounts of monies available to actually assist artisans in the fair trade cottage industry manufacturing world (jewelry, accessories, clothing, home décor, baby items, etc.) there is a big difference between for profit and nonprofit. Obviously for profit online stores are looking at a profit picture in their business model. In our business model, there is no profit, only operating expenses kept to a minimum. Largely, what we do is service in creating a marketplace to sell high quality fair trade goods at very good prices. We then pass along the profit to the artisans and the real needs of their communities.

For example, one of the pragmatic projects we were instrumental in was the Nutritional Empowerment Project set up to help Kichwa Artisans in the Ecuadorian Amazon region. SFAC joined with the Faire Collection in funding the project which established sustainable farming in the area. We were determined to help the Kichwa’s issues with malnutrition and consistent access to food. 

Remember, next time you’re shopping for fair trade, shop at a nonprofit store like ours. Your purchase goes much further than providing a living wage to the artisans.

As we enter into 2016, you’ll find a wide range of established and new items in our Jewelry and Accessories. Each piece is handmade and eco friendly, and always selected for quality and longevity.

Please visit us frequently during 2016 as new selections will arrive throughout the year. Like us on Facebook and please recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Fair Trade Clothing, Accessories Are Surprisingly Affordable

The assumption is, with most people we talk to, that fair trade handmade products or gifts (non food items) are more expensive than mainstream products. In some cases, they may be. But in many cases you can purchase fair trade clothing, accessories, jewelry or home décor, baby items, in the same price range as conventional store or online prices.

One man who held the fair-trade-is-more-expensive assumption found out with one day’s shopping that he could buy an entire casual ensemble at fair trade online stores for $8 under the price of conventional stores. Writer and blogger Kelsey Timmerman wrote in The Huffington Post about his experience.

Most folks think shopping for clothing with your ethics is a privilege that few can afford. I've been writing about being an ethical and engaged consumer since I traveled around the world to meet the people who made my clothes.

Since writing Where Am I Wearing? I encouraged folks to wear one thing a day they knew was produced in a way that treated people and planet fairly. I reach a lot of college students and thought that a whole outfit in such clothes would be unaffordable.

Today, I decided to do a little online shopping experiment: I put together a whole outfit consisting of underwear, shirt, shoes, pants, socks and a beanie by visiting the online stores of companies that I know are making responsible decisions about people and planet. And then I compared them to products you would normally find at the mall.

It turns out the ethical outfit I put together only cost $153, which was actually $8 cheaper than the normal outfit.

If you really want great prices for great fair trade products, please go to our Year End Clearance sale page (link). And our Jewelry and Accessories collections continue to be expanded with beautiful, handmade pieces as we search for items in the new year. We’re always eco friendly and always take the best care of our artisans.

Please visit us frequently during 2016 as new selections will arrive throughout the year. Like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

SFAC Fair Trade Online Site In Jacki Zehner’s Advice Column

Happy New Year everyone! Thank you so much for your donations and support through shopping with us year-round.  We are truly grateful.

Jacki Zehner is a well-known and highly regarded writer and activist for women’s and girls’ rights, working towards a more gender-egalitarian world. She was  formerly a market strategist on Wall Street.

In a recent December 2015 column she wrote a column on Shop Your Values 2015 that discussed the power of women shoppers.

She wrote: In the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it can be easy to forget that every time you spend a dollar, that exchange is an exchange of power. Companies understand this well, and they spend billions of dollars every year trying to convince you to give them your purchasing power. Who are the main shoppers? Women. We make 75-85% of all purchasing decisions, which adds up to trillions of dollars that we could be using to support our values. Your dollars can make or break a company, brand, or consumer item, so what if we all started using this power as a way of supporting our values in life? What if we used our spending dollars to hold companies accountable, and as a means of enacting social change? That’s what shopping your values means, and the possibilities are endless.

For me personally, shopping my values means supporting gender equality and lifting up women and girls around the world. …This may seem like a daunting challenge to throw into the mix, but in reality, it’s actually very easy to purchase great gifts, while at the same time knowing you are directly supporting families in places that lack robust economic opportunities. When looking for gifts, look no further than Rising International, Plum Alley, Indigo Africa, the Akola Project, Made by Survivors, Prosperity Candle, the Nomi Network, Soko, Same Sky, or Shopping for a Change. Each one of these organizations sells incredible handcrafted gifts such as jewelry, clothing, baskets, crafts, tote bags, and silks, all of which have been made by women in impoverished areas all around the world.

We now have tremendous New Year’s Sale going on at our site, so please visit for a great choice of remarkable deals and bargains. Prices on all Tagua and Horn Jewelry are so low you will think we’re nuts. Also, please be sure to take a look at our Baby Collection and our Purses, Handbags and Totes section.

Please visit us frequently during 2016 as new selections will arrive throughout the year. Like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

SFAC Sells Fair Trade Christmas Gifts at Facebook Farmer’s Market

The past few days have been wonderfully busy for us as we’re fulfilling all the Christmas and holiday gifts shoppers are buying on our nonprofit fair trade goods site. We’ve had shoppers from South Carolina up to Maine over to Colorado down to Texas over to Arizona and California and nearly all states in between.

On Sunday, December 13^th, one of the delights of this season was the invitation we received to participate in the Facebook Holiday Boutique at the Facebook Farmer’s Market (takes place in the Facebook parking lot in Menlo Park of the SF Bay Area). Thousands of people poured in under huge enclosed tents for the shopping among 30 vendors. We brought our home goods and baby/kids products and had a rich opportunity to talk about fair trade eco friendly products and our nonprofit mission with many passersby, along with selling many items.

There’s still time to buy from our Holiday Christmas Hanukkah fair trade gift choices and stocking stuffers. A great selection including accessories, purses and bags to jewelry to home décor and kitchenware. Many great items are on sale at our Holiday Bargain Sale Collection.

Enjoy your holiday shopping with us, and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Best Fair Trade Christmas Gifts—SFAC Makes the News

During this busy 2015 Holiday giving season that seems to be going too fast, here at Shopping for a Change we’ve been featured in two more publications (see our last 12/4/15 post)—mentions we wanted to share with our shoppers and supporters. Since we are nonprofit (which gives us the rare ability to provide more earnings to our worldwide artisans and to substantially support their community projects) these media mentions are very valuable with their mass exposure.  

  

Entrepreneur.com Magazine featured SFAC founder/president Stacey Horowitz in a November 30^th article (by Rebekah Iliff) discussion of “conscious consumption.” She writes: People are seeking out ways to make better decisions about what to buy, and do-good brands are becoming household names. From donating product or a portion of sales to establishing fair wages for factory workers, more and more businesses are assigning value to ethical business practices -- and consumers are seeing the value in it too.

Stacey Horowitz was interviewed for the article and she offered: Shoppers are becoming enlightened. There is a strong movement amongst consumers to know that their purchases are giving back to those who produce them and to connect with them on an emotional level. Our customers love the fact that when they shop with us, their purchases are helping to shape and improve the lives of those they touch both domestically and abroad.

Kiwi Magazine (a print magazine with a sub name of Growing families the natural and organic way) includes the SFAC product Reclaimed Teak Cheese Board with Handle in its best gifts for the Holidays section. A picture is below.

Now’s the time to take full advantage of all our HolidayChristmas Hanukkah fair trade gift choices and stocking stuffers. Everything from purses and bags to jewelry to home décor and kitchenware. Many great items are on sale at our Holiday Bargain Sale Selections.

Enjoy your shopping with us, and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

SFAC Fair Trade Holiday Gifts in the News

Shopping for a Change has been featured over the past week in a number of magazines' holiday sections. These magazines have selected SFAC products to showcase for their readers for Christmas Holiday shopping, and we’re proud to be in them.

Men’s Fitness, a very popular magazine dedicated to men’s performance health and personal training and nutrition, runs a section each year called The Ultimate Gift Guide for Mom. Our fair trade kitchenware item Teak Regtangular Bread and Cheese Board made the cut for being one the best gifts to buy for mom (or for a man in or out of training). Check out the show piece here. 

And Bay Area Parent, a local SF Bay Area magazine popular with new and veteran parents, included some of our infants’ and kids’ items and mentioned our home décor in a piece called Holiday Gifts With a Local Twist.

Both articles appreciated the fact that we are nonprofit, meaning more of your purchase goes to helping the artisans and their communities.

There’s still plenty of time to shop for Holiday Christmas Hanukkah fair trade stocking stuffers and larger gifts. We suggest you visit our FairTrade Accessories Collection with its many great choices, or go to our fabulous Jewelry Collection. And many are on sale at our Holiday Bargain Sale Selections.

Enjoy your shopping with us, and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

SFAC Launches 2nd Annual Indiegogo Crowdfunding Campaign

Here at SFAC we have much to be thankful for in this Thanksgiving Week. We’ve just launched our 2^nd annual crowdfunding drive on Indiegogo to raise funds to continue and expand our nonprofit work that is profoundly benefitting so many. As of this week we now work with 50 plus artisan groups who craft the beautiful products on our site in villages and urban settings (we make sure they are environmentally friendly work places) in 28 countries. All together, we touch the lives of 43,000 artisans, an astonishing number. And you, our valued shoppers and donors, make this all possible. So, we’re very thankful to you. As SAFC is nonprofit, much more of the income that comes in from buying our fair trade items goes to the artisans and community improvement projects.

Please visit our crowdfunding page at Indiegogo here (hot link) and we ask you to give as much as you can. There are some nice perks available for you. In 2015 our product sales will finance 2500 pairs of eyeglasses to worldwide artisans—a project in partnership with the well regarded nonprofit VisionSpring.

We’ve got a lot of Holiday Christmas fair trade stocking stuffers and larger gifts, so please visit or Fair Trade AccessoriesCollection, or our Cases Collection. And many are on sale at our HolidayDiscount Collection.

Enjoy your shopping with us, and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

SFAC and the Power of Sustainable Fashion

“Sustainable fashion” has become a buzzword in the world of popular eco green and fair trade culture. It’s a good term that has been adopted from the whole principle of sustainablility. Its meaning for fair trade (and how it applies to Shopping for a Change) is multiple: apparel and accessories manufactured from organic, naturally dyed materials; made by workers receiving a living wage and working in safe and environmentally friendly working conditions; and high quality garments or accessories designed to last a very long time.

Our intention here at SFAC as we continue to stock our shelves with new items and restock our current items is to make sure that all of our items are sustainable in the full sense of the concept as it applies to fair trade cottage industry items. We’re proud to be on the bandwagon of sustainability. As a nonprofit (meaning we can give more from our shoppers’ purchasing) we are an important contributor to the sustainability of the village or community our artisans live in.

If you’re looking for Holiday Christmas fair trade stocking stuffers, please visit our cases collection and our accessories collection. You’ll find perfect, affordable items, and may are on sale.

Enjoy your shopping with us, and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Shopping for a Change Stacey Horowitz on SF Bay Area News

Make a Difference Day is the most supported community service day on the national calendar. It takes place every year on October 24th and was begun in 1992 by USA Weekend magazine and is now organized and sponsored by USA Today.

As part of Make a Difference Day last week Stacey Horowitz (founder of Shopping for a Change) appeared on SF Bay Area local news channel KTVU to talk about making a difference and to present on air a number of the popular fair trade products carried by SFAC. In the interview she talked about SFAC being nonprofit and helping thousands of women in 28 different countries with over 50 artisan groups. And she described the many fine features of the items presented.

Please visit this link to see her interview and presentation: 

You can join us in making a difference over many days of the year by shopping and buying fair trade holiday (Christmas, Hanukkah and others)gifts. Stop by for great gifts ideas. Take a look at our jewelry (hot link) or accessories pages for the perfect handmade, fair trade, eco friendly presents. We also have many items on sale here.

Enjoy your shopping with us, and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Three Benefits of Fair Trade Month, October 2015

October is a big month for public awareness: Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Non-GMO Month, World Food Day, International Day of Rural Women and there is, of course, National Cat Day. It was also Fair Trade Month, a month long celebration of awareness, information sharing, and opportunities for all expressions of fair trade. Jenna Larson wrote a piece just a few days ago on how Fair Trade Month helps everybody.

1.)  Fair Trade Month is the time to spread the word about who and where our products come from, and learning more about what fair trade is and means.

2.)  Fair trade products are more accessible than ever.  They started off as coffee in 1998. Now, you can find Fair Trade fruit, vegetables, flowers, sugar, cocoa, tea, coffee, spices, grains, sports balls, apparel, home decor, coconut (and coconut water), seafood and many other products from over 1,000 different companies.

3.)  The impetus, ideas and tools of Fair Trade Month don’t end on October 31st. It continues on for the rest of the year and beyond in our personal commitments and lives.

As you’re undoubtedly aware, the holiday shopping season is coming up fast. We invite you to shop in our Accessories selections 

where you’ll find some of our exceptional items to buy online. Our selections are curated by our returning shoppers so we know what is popular. Also, take a few minutes to look at our Jewelry collection (hot link). All are perfect for Christmas, Hanukkah and all other December festivities.

Enjoy your shopping with us, and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

What Truly Makes Fair Trade Fair

In today’s fair trade public debate world (October 2015 is Fair Trade Month)—which is evolving into a significant market share for cash crops and cottage industry products—there’s now a growing discussion on what really constitutes fair trade. There are always those who take advantage of market opportunities to cut environmental corners, to not provide for the employees as should be done, and other shortcomings. Among the top four qualifications for true fair trade are: fair working conditions, fair pay, safely structured buildings and worker empowerment. And there is also a distinction between “ethical fashion” and “fair trade.” The understanding for “ethical fashion” is loose and doesn’t necessarily cover all the life-assisting expectations for fair trade artisan workers. Fifty five percent of Americans understand what fair trade means (according to a recent survey), which means that they are looking for fashion, accessories, home décor, clothing, and baby items that are truly fair trade. Here at Shopping for a Change, all of our artisan vendors surpass fair trade guidelines.

We have some lovely, exciting new products appearing in our Accessories collection, and it’s not too early to start thinking about Holiday shopping. Please go to our Clearance Sale page to browse through all our on-sale items that you can purchase early for Christmas, Hanukkah and all holiday celebrations.

Enjoy your shopping with us, and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

October is Fair Trade Month 2015 and Why Buy Fair Trade Site

Here we are in October 2015, the month that is being promoted and celebrated around the globe as Fair Trade Month. Cottage industry manufactures and growers in over 80 countries are joining with fair trade distributors, retailers and nonprofit advocate institutions to exponentially grow awareness of and commitment to fair trade buying.

Over 1.8 million fair trade farmers and artisans are now involved in this sea change market movement. This includes food crops and products, fashion items and home goods. This means 1.8 million individuals are being paid fairly for their work and are able to enjoy a living (even thriving) wage and good working conditions, livelihood protection and participating in eco friendly policies.

To quickly understand how your purchasing of fair trade products helps, please visit this Buy Fair Be Fair site. There’s a wonderful graphic that depicts the virtuous circle created from buying fair trade from whatever community you live in.

As we move into the Fall season, we’d like to share with you the beautiful, exciting new items we’ve added to our fair trade accessories. Lots of purses, cases, scarves, belts and more to choose from—for yourself or as gifts to others.

Enjoy your shopping with us and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

A Look into our Philippines Fair Trade Benitez Collection Artisan Group

One of our most prized jewelry collections comes from the Philippines, which gives this collection an appreciable exotic charm in and of itself. We’ve been carrying Benitez Collection jewelry (BC) —which creatively expands on the Philippine tradition of papier mache art—for two years now and our customers love the unique look and feel of these recycled pieces. The fair trade and eco friendly jewelry collection is eponymously named after its founder, Ramona Benitez McClelland. Ramona came to the Philippines and started her cottage industry business in the footsteps of her son, Bryan Benitez McClelland, who had ventured to the Philippines eight years ago as an environmental consultant and ended up participating in a revolutionary product: the bamboo bicycle.

In an interview with Asian Journal magazine, Ramona explained, “I started Benitez Collection to help provide women in poor rural communities with livelihood opportunities. My long-term goal is to have them take responsibility for the entire process.” She had worked at IBM for 26 years and started BC in 2011.

She goes on: “We salvage discarded newspapers, magazines and plastic from their garbage dump or from donations, and with a little bit of rice paste, nontoxic paint/waterseal, and a lot of polishing, we create attractive unique jewelry that look like rocks but are so light, people can’t believe that these are made of paper.”

Ramona hopes to grow her small empire into something bigger so she can expand beyond the 18 women and their families in three remote villages in Tarlac, Batangas and Abra she currently works with.

Our fair trade accessories collection has expanded over the past few months, so please take a look and do some early fall shopping, for gift giving of eco friendly, handmade items that everybody loves.

Enjoy your shopping with us and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.