Getting ready for Town Day!

Town Day in Arlington, MA is a splendid aggregation of merchants, community organizations, food vendors, and musicians. The center of town is closed off and more than 200 booths line that section of Massachusetts Avenue. This year, Town Day is on Saturday, September 17, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It's been a while since we've had a booth there, and we're eager to go back and see old friends and be part of the local business community in Arlington.

We'll have lots of charming things for sale: the ever-popular Kenyan soapstone hearts and critters, all sorts of earrings, wallets, handbags, and scarves; dream catchers and worry dolls; little Egyptian and Indian boxes and Guatemalan baskets. And more; be sure to look in the $5 bins! We will have amazing buys on items we're closing out. If you're paying cash, we'll pay the sales tax.

We hope to be near our old storefront location at 669 Mass. Ave, but one never knows where one's booth will be until the morning of set-up. Nevertheless, you'll be sure to find us as you walk up and down the Avenue, debating whether to have fried dough or a slice of pie, a sausage or a plate of Thai food, and what community e-mail lists to sign up for. It's always satisfying to contemplate what you've brought home after Town Day. Your bag should include something special from Crossroads Trade.

-- Lisa Deeley Smith

Watch Our Other Space!

We want you to read this blog, of course, but we hope you are checking out our web site. We are posting new entries there nearly every day. Some are new arrivals, such as our stunning collections of Rwandan baskets and Nepalese beaded bracelets. Others are best sellers, such as the molas we ship all over the world.

Our web site is now completely searchable, both the titles and the text. Type in "Guatemala wallet" and you'll get all our selections, in two sizes and from four regions, each with its own distinctive motif.

We'll continue to keep you posted about new arrivals via this blog, but you don't have to wait for us. Just type in your search items and see what we've got!

Having a Mother's Day Dilemma?

Our last porch sale was a great success -- so great we're going to do it again! This time, our focus will be on items made by mothers, perfect for Mother's Day.

Back in the day of our brick-and-mortar store, we would get all kinds of husbands into the shop. Some would know exactly what they were looking for. Some would walk in, look around, exhale, and look for help. And help we would, asking questions about what the wife in question usually wore (earrings? necklaces? scarves? big or small? colors?), holding up approximately-sized fingers for ring sizing, modeling necklaces and shawls.

For those worried Mother's Day shoppers, we can still help.We're offering our personalized service again: Thursday and Friday evenings, May 5 and 6, from 6 to 9 p.m., at 24 Ottawa Rd., Arlington, MA. We're also holding a sale traditional yard-sale items and scarves, accessories, and gifts from the home Sat., May 7, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.at the same location.

We'll have our new, show-stopping jewelry from Nepal that received rave reviews at our booth at a recent show. It can be brought separately or in sets.

 

 We still have some of the popular Guatemalan beaded jewelry from the store.

 

For those mothers who like to focus on the home, we have cushion covers and hangings from Bolvia, Palestine, and South Africa.

We've got striking new baskets from Rwanda. Rwandan women began weaving baskets for sale after the genocide, when so many were left to support their families by themselves.

And for kids on a budget, we have soapstone hearts and critters from Kenya, handmade paper flowers and baskets from Guatemala.

So come by! And you can't, check out our offerings on our web site and on EBay's World of Good.

Fair-Trade Thoughts

We’ve just about wrapped up our buying for the holiday season at Crossroads Trade, and, as always, it’s highlighted emerging, complicated ethical issues in fair trade.

We do our buying in several ways. We buy directly from artisans and producer groups in some countries, and we buy through fair-trade wholesalers in others. Many factors go into deciding whether to buy directly. What quality control measures are in place? Can we get an order to port? What export hurdles exist? What trade agreement is in place between a given country and the US? How expensive and time-consuming is reliable shipping? What does it take to get our order out of US Customs? When significant obstacles exist, wholesalers play an invaluable role.

The linchpin of wholesaling is the trade shows. The New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF) is the biggest venue. Five thousand vendors showcase their wares to the retail industry, and, each year, the fair-trade presence at the show increases.

But not only retailers see the products. Industry scouts, wholesalers, and producer groups all have the opportunity to see what each other is producing. At this past show, I saw two wholesalers who were devastated to find that others had copied and were touting as their own products the wholesalers had spent years developing. In other cases, signature products of certain countries were being copied by producer groups from other countries. Telephone-wire and other recycled-basket styles that originated in South Africa are now being produced in Vietnam. They can be produced more cheaply, in part, because the hard work of product development had already been done.

Fair traders have differing perspectives on these dilemmas. Some view anything as fair game; if producing a Russian nesting doll in India will lead to employment in a destitute community, they’re all for it. Others believe it’s cultural theft to produce South African necklaces in Guatemala.

Still others take a nuanced view, as I do. I used to view production of South African style beadwork in Guatemala with horror. But after doing this work for ten years, I’ve seen that Guatemalan beadwork is becoming an art form in its own right. I was upset by Vietnamese production of South African and Brazilian recycled products, until I realized that it was better to have Vietnamese trash put to use than not.

Over the years, I’ve seen many wholesalers come and go. I’ve seen products I’ve designed exclusively for our use sold by others. The decreased value of the US dollar has sunk many a supplier.

It is a rough business. It’s a lot bigger than any one of us. Our ethical compasses may give us guidance, but we’re still working in constantly shifting terrain. As the internet continues to reduce the degrees of separation between producer and consumer, and between producers from country to country, fair-trade terrain will continue to shift. We will always be a work in progress.