How to Shop Fair Trade for Very Good Buys

Looking for the best buys on jewelry items (including trending tagua nut jewelry), laptop cases, or how about a gorgeous hobo bag?

The fair trade manufactured products (as opposed to food products) industry has arrived at the stage where marked down sales on items are a great opportunity to buy eco friendly products that are hand made and pay fairly to the individuals who craft them in economically developing countries. Good prices can mean a lot of savings on items for you or for gift-giving occasions in the near or far future.

Now in early 2015 it is an excellent time for seasonal sales as there are many items being marked down so that inventory is sold to make way for new items. Our SFAC online store has one of the best selections of fair trade clearance sale items you’ll find. In fact under searches for fair trade clearance sales our site comes up at the top of page 1 on Google.

We’ve marked down items from 10% to 90%—including home décor, accessories, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, wraps and scarves, and more. There are dozens of jewelry pieces for your browsing—all at bargain  prices. Our sale items are fashionable, exciting and very affordable.

Please visit our clearance sale page and be sure to tell all your friends about it. Remember we are nonprofit, so much more goes back to the artisans and other nonprofit-benefited projects in the US.

PACT Baby Clothes Now Fair Trade Certified

When the PACT fair trade manufacturer from Turkey expanded out of its successful women’s and men’s underwear and sock lines into baby wear we were excited. We picked up their line of onesies (with matching socks) for babies: super soft, organic cotton, for boys or girls, no pesticides, fertilizers or bleach is used.  They don’t use sweatshops and pay a good living wage to the artisans who work for them. We couldn’t resist these adorable pieces and they’ve been selling well since we brought them into our baby collection.

Now PACT has been officially Fair Trade Certified (FTC), an extremely demanding designation to achieve. PACT is already GOTS certified as a brand with factories that feature clean, safe workplaces that also have a light footprint on the environment. Now they are FTC and can boast having more FTC products than any other brand in the US.

Fair Trade Certification is given when a brand is recognized for outstanding empowerment to its workers, with putting more money directly into their hands for upwards mobility to a better standard of living.

Shop our baby collection for these adorable onesies and our other quality made, eco friendly products for infants and toddlers. Please share our site with your friends! We are a terrific resource for unique baby shower gifts and darling items to lavish upon the young’uns in your lives.

Wearing Fashion That Reflects Your True Self

Fashion is about expressing who you are in apparel and accessories, right? Our look is an extension of who we are on the inside, and/or who we identify with in the world (which is part of who we are on the inside). Fair trade fashion, as many commentators have pointed out, represents who we are ethically, intellectually and emotionally. For some, it speaks to our spiritual identity.

In an article on the website Triple Pundit there is the observation that: Welcome to the world of fashion and the daily ritual of wearing a piece of apparel every day that has the potential to “define” you. Now we look at the power of fashion to define and transform the individual from the inside, too. Ponder for a moment the ability to connect with people and planet through our clothes — what would you say to this? In reality, this concept is absent in our daily conversation because brands and companies that produce, market and sell clothing today have kept this information from us; they have denied it as a priority and denounced the impact that this information can have on the overall shopping and purchasing decision we as consumers make on a daily basis. Every day we wear a piece of clothing that has touched several people along the way. It is something most of us take for granted. Perhaps it’s time to revisit this journey, to step back and ponder how aligned each piece of clothing is to our own values. Let’s celebrate the fact that fashion has the potential to connect us in deeper and more profound ways.

Here at SFAC we believe that what you wear or put on or display in your home or dress your kids in does deeply reflect who you are. From this perspective we endeavor to bring the best collections—both in beauty and quality—for your shopping and ethical pleasure. Please enjoy visiting our online store here. And remember we are nonprofit, meaning your fair trade purchase goes much further than a profit-based fair trade store. 

Winter Blowout Clearance Sale On Fashionable Fair Trade Products

With the 2014 holiday season drawing to a close, we hope you enjoyed the special warmth of gift giving, celebration, and being with family and friends. Is there such a thing as fair trade champagne for a New Years party? We’ll have to look that up. 

It's nearly 2015 and we’re very excited about the upcoming opportunities for fair trade online shopping at Shopping For A Change. We are busy sourcing & buying new items for this coming year. 

Help us make room for these new artisan products by shopping our Winter Blowout Clearance Sale with 10 – 90% off on 84 different products including jewelry, accessories, home décor, purses and more. 

We're completing our most successful year yet in serving the public with fair trade eco friendly products that are all hand made. Now is your chance to get some of these finely crafted, beautiful and socially conscious items at greatly reduced prices. 

And remember, we are an all volunteer nonprofit--no high administrative salaries here. When you shop with us your purchase is truly helping the artisans who made them, their communities, and other nonprofit institutions you select during the checkout process.  

Happy New Year and Happy Shopping

SFAC Listed in CNN’s 2014 Do-Gooder-Holiday-Gift-Guide

CNN’s annual Do-Gooder-Holiday-Gift-Guide just came out on the CNN website, and we are very proud to have a product included from Shopping for a Change amongst the chosen few recommended by CNN. Selected was our very colorful, Rainbow Hat that all infants  (and parents) will love—handmade by fair trade artisans in Bangladesh. It is on slide 11 of the CNN article’s slide show.

 

The CNN article starts out:

It's the month when we get stressed over the perfect gifts to give to family and friends. Are they foodies or travelers, lovers of movies and music, busy parents who need a break or children who love the latest electronic gadgets? Or would they be happier with something crafty?

With all the buying and selling going on, it can be hard to remember the point of the season for many people: Spending time with family, celebrating the religious holidays that inspire the season, and doing some good in the world.

You still have time to do your holiday shopping with us. We can ship items out overnight in time for your gift giving. Start by going to our home page and while there, be sure to check out our holiday bargain sale page with many popular items on sale right now. 

Our Holiday Sale Page Offers Too-Good-to-Pass-Up Bargains

Fair trade holiday gift shopping is one of the hottest trends this season. Most people think of fair trade as coffee, tea, chocolate and another agricultural products, but fair trade now covers the entire gamut of finely crafted items including jewelry, accessories, clothing, shoes, purses, home décor, toys and more.

Shopping for a Change’s online store has an entire department dedicated to bargain sales for holiday gift buying. Browse our virtual sales shelves to view fantastic bargains ranging from 10 – 50% OFF, including best sellers in jewelry, clothing, accessories, home décor. All are handmade and green eco friendly.

Not only will you find great prices on all of our fair trade items, but your gifts truly give back in multiple ways: to the artisans who make them, their communities and to U.S. based nonprofit organizations that our shoppers choose during the checkout process.

Quantities are limited so stop by soon! www.shoppingforachange.org

Stacey Horowitz, Founder SFAC, Featured on KRON 4 Bay Area News

Stacey Horowitz—founder and CEO of Shopping For a Change—appeared on San Francisco Bay Area news channel TV KRON 4 on November 29^th to talk about her nonprofit fair trade online site, a number of the unique products she’s offering for the holiday season, how she got started and the artisans she works with globally. Interviewed by Will Tran of KRON (go here to see interview)—who was enthused about the story and the SFAC products on display in the studios—Stacey told how her nonprofit and fair trade products are unique. While holding up an extraordinarily beautiful purse made by Brazilian women completely out of pop can tops, she explained how SFAC uses all profits to directly help the artisans (mostly women), their communities with education and living resources, and nonprofits which the shoppers choose during the checkout process.

The Brazilian pop top purses are a big hit, and all styles are selling fast. Stacey purchased and has carried her own Greta style pop top bag for close to a year,  saying everywhere she takes it, women and men alike stop her to comment on it. Get one for your loved ones (go here).

In the KRON interview Stacey told how SFAC was founded following a trip to Peru after witnessing the poverty of craftspeople there who were mothers with families and individuals truly struggling in all expressions of life that we might normally take for granted. Stacey wanted to help make a difference, and see the artisans and communities around the world grow in prosperity.

Will asked if the items SFAC carries are affordable,  to which Stacey explained that absolutely they are affordable, costing no more than items that are made and marketed conventionally. From home décor to jewelry, accessories, kitchen, table wares and more, Stacey explained how the products are well priced while still paying the artisans fairly and enabling the customers’ purchases to help fund community improvement projects abroad and support their choice of domestic nonprofits.

Still need to do your holiday shopping? Visit the SFAC online marketplace now, or very soon for fabulous collections and great bargain sales (before they run out). Tell all your friends and relatives too.