Helping out on the Traidcraft stall once a month takes me back to the time many years ago when I ran my own shop. I’ll never forget the day a young lady approached the counter and asked for “A pound of dinner, please.” “What sort of dinner?” I asked, not unreasonably. “That dinner there,” she replied, pointing to the bowl of mud I’d prepared earlier. “Okay, that’ll be sixpence please.” I said, weighing the earth carefully on some kitchen scales and then tipping it partly into her open shopping bag, and partly all over the floor. She handed over some invisible money, which I placed securely in the invisible till, and watched as she left without saying goodbye, her carrier bag trailing along the carpet behind her. I didn’t mind. It was the first day that my three year-old little sister had been forced to play shops with me since my older sister had selfishly started school. I must have known instinctively that the customer is always right.
Of course working on the Traidcraft stall isn’t quite the same as playing shops. The money is real, the products are of high quality, and most of the customers aren’t wearing their mothers’ shoes. But the most important difference of course is the difference that is made to the lives of the producers whose skill and industry bring us these excellent products. Through organisations like Traidcraft – and the Fair Trade movement in general – we have all been given the opportunity to turn away from the extreme exploitation that so often characterises foreign trade with poor countries. Whether it is through picking up our favourite items from the monthly Traidcraft stall in the crypt – or by purchasing Fairtrade goods as part of our regular supermarket shop – we can all now, quite simply, put our money where our mouth is. Thank you for supporting the stall and please forgive me if I make a ringing sound every time I put your money in the “till”. Old habits die hard.
So far this year the Traidcraft stall has sold £2,000 worth of Fairtrade products and over £9,000 worth since we began in 2008. 10% of this amount is profit and will be donated to Traidcraft Exchange to help support its work with poor producers.
Traidcraft
Louise Coats