A four-hour sale turned into a shop promoting fair trade for 25 years

Twenty-five years ago, Jan Williams and Cindy Adcock started selling fair trade crafts in the basement of Watts Street Baptist Church in Durham.

Each woman had been on mission trips where they witnessed extreme poverty in the countries they visited and decided to do something to help.

What began a four-hour sale, one Saturday per month, turned into every Saturday, and two years later, a full-scale nonprofit store on Perry Street.

This year that store, One World Market, now on Ninth Street in Durham, is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and works with artisans living in more than 70 developing countries. It provides them with access to the U.S. market to sell their goods and ensures they’re paid a living wage. Inside the store, customers will find unique items including jewelry and clothing, pottery and glass, coffee and chocolate.

“We’re giving them the opportunity to sell their goods for what they’re worth,” said Katie Westermann, executive director of One World Market. “A lot of these people – if you’re in a market in India, for example, and you’re selling your items – half the time, they’re not getting what they’re actually worth.”

The staff at One World Market also serve as educators, helping the local community understand the kinds of challenges and hardships people in these developing countries face.

Products sold at One World Market meet fair trade standards. These include considerations such as ensuring there’s no child or slave labor; women have equal opportunity; working conditions are safe; and they’re not creating products that are harmful to the environment, among others, Westermann said.

Many of the groups featured at One World Market are certified by the Fair Trade Federation – which, according to its website, strengthens and promotes North American organizations fully committed to fair trade – and even those that are not certified follow the same standards, she said.

The products sold at One World Market must also meet a quality standard, Westermann said.

“Sometimes people see fair trade as charity, and it’s definitely not,” she said. “We’re paying people for the amazing work that they do.”

Large organizations such as Servv Fair Trade serve as wholesalers that provide stores like One World Market with goods from artisans around the world.

Other goods come from smaller organizations, such as the Mighty River Project, based in Winston-Salem. The Mighty River Project purchases crafts from nine Ugandan artisans at fair prices, allowing the women who are making them to receive a consistent monthly salary and support their children, according to the organization’s website.

All of the artisans represented at One World Market are paid up front, so that if, for example, the store decides to hold a sale, it’s the store who takes the loss on profit and not the artisans, Westermann said.

Much like its early days, One World Market is helped by a group of volunteers. Only a few employees in addition to Westermann are paid.

Some volunteers have been involved from almost the time the store opened. One of those longtime volunteers, Frances Anton, has been both a volunteer and board member in the more than 17 years she’s spent with the organization. When she began, fair trade was a new movement, and not a lot was known about production and working conditions in developing countries, she said.

“I’m happy to say – and you can see that from the number of producer groups we have now – that people are much more familiar with fair trade, and that’s gratifying to see,” she said, “but there’s still people who learn something when they come in to our store.”

Though it’s a retail store, One World Market is also a nonprofit. Payroll and rent – to be a successful retail store means having a location people can easily find and visit – are big expenses. What’s more, just as their artisans are paid a living wage, One World Market participates in the Durham Living Wage Project, meaning the few part-time staff currently receive $13.35 per hour.

“We believe in paying fair wages locally and globally,” Westermann said.

In September, the store held a 25th anniversary party and fundraiser. Westermann, who started working at One World Market in 2012, said it was the largest crowd she’d seen in the store at one time.

“It’s that kind of event that makes me think we could be around for another 25 years,” she said.

This story was originally published November 22, 2017 at 6:34 PM with the headline "A four-hour sale turned into a shop promoting fair trade for 25 years."