Best Places to Buy Fair Trade Goods Online

Fair trade is trading system that puts ethics over profits. Fair trade producers are paid higher than free trade producers for their products and in return must contribute to the well-being of their employees. Fair trade organizations like Transfair in the USA and the FLO (everywhere else) set standards that they expect to be met, but also go through great lengths to help the fair trade product developers get on their feet.

When you buy fair trade you're also buying measures to reduce poverty and develop infrastructure. You're aiding workers who would have otherwise been shut out by conventional trade agreements. You're also assisting transparent and honest companies that operate quite freely compared to other developing producers. Independence is being built because producers have enough money to do many key things like marketing and promotion themselves. They aren't required to latch on to other, less ethical companies. One of the most important things is that you will have the peace of mind knowing that you're paying a fair price for the goods.

Fair trade has a great record of gender respect. Women are guaranteed to get paid at least the same amount as men and children are encouraged to go to school rather than work. Lastly, the environment isn't left out of the picture. Fair trade is all about sustainable practices, therefore the environment is never an afterthought.

In the past, the Fair trade market was associated with Worldshops. Those are stores, often volunteer run, that would primarily sell fair trade handicrafts and the like. They were few and in between, and often did not have a thorough certification process. Once fair trade certifiers got off the ground with the like of the Fair Trade Labeling Organization and Transfair in North America, many more goods were being sold as fair trade. Certification has evolved from a word-of-mouth practice to an art of finesse. Standards and new ideas are always being thrown around.

The good practices have led many major corporate players to sell fair trade products of their own. In the United States, Dunkin' Donuts, Publix, Safeway, Sam's Club, Seattle's Best Coffee, Starbucks, Stop 'n' Shop, Target, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Wild Oats all take part in the action. Primarily, coffee is the major seller, but fresh fruit like bananas have also been sold with success. When it comes to handicrafts, though, there is clear semi-monopoly in the form of Ten Thousand Villages. Not only do they have over 160 stores throughout the country, but they have an incredibly successful online presence as well. They are probably the most popular place to buy online goods on the Internet. The items that are carried vary from kites to home furnishings, and every product features a short profile of the producer who developed it. I easily recommend them.

Popular websites like Amazon and Ebay are also great places to find fair trade goods, but the websites don't cater to this crowd. For a website that features just about everything under the fair trade sun, The Ethical Consumer is a fantastic vantage point. There's all kinds of goodies there. The only drawback is that they are located in the U.K. They are the best fair trade retailer in existence, and all the others struggle to imitate them.

Great fair trade retailers turn up in the most unlikely places, though. You can bet that many diverse offerings will pop up in the next few years.

Sources:

Ethical Superstore: http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com

Ten Thousand Villages: http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/

Transfair USA: http://transfairusa.org/

Wikipedia Entry on Fair Trade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade