We are closed on New year's Day,also the 2nd and 3rd January.
Open Thursday to Sunday for the month of January.
Thursday and Friday 11am-4pm
Saturday 10am-5pm
Sunday 11 am-4 pm
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Tuesday CLOSED
Wednesday 11am-4pm
Thursday 10am-5pm
Friday 11 am-4pm
Saturday 10am-5pm
Sunday 11am-4pm
]]>Monday 11am-4pm
Tuesday 11am-4pm
Wednesday 11am-4pm
Thursday 10am-4pm
Friday 11am-4pm
Saturday 10am-5pm
Sunday 12pm-3pm –
(We will be open most Sundays over the summer but perhaps not every single one-best to check-Thanks !:))
]]>https://jenipherscoffi.wales
For £25.OO you can buy a bag of 227g coffee (ground or beans) AND either 25 trees for the farmers to plant,or one of these brilliant little solar panels-it is a win win situation-you get delicious coffee and get to help the coffee farmers all in one go -result!:)
These bundles and more are all available on www.jenipherscoffi along with much more information.The website makes for fascinating reading,there is much to learn and a great way to help - keep buying Jenipher's Coffi -and drinking it of course
.
Thank you,Diolch yn Fawr to all who attended and specially to Elen and Jenipher for making it happen!
Ruth :)
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Monday 11 am-4pm
Tuesday 11 am-4pm
Wednesday 11am-4pm
Thursday 10 am-4pm
Friday 11am-4pm
Saturday 10am-5pm
Up to and including Easter .
Many Thanks and see you soon :)
]]>3rd,4th 5th 6th 11am-3pm
For the rest of January we will be closed except for Thursdays 11am-4pm and Saturdays 10am-5pm.
We will re open Monday to Saturday from 30/01/23.
Happy New Year All.
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Greetings from Ruth, Szilvia and Layla!
Make that Season's Greetings as Christmas has suddenly snuck up on us.
With that in mind, I am posting a quick update ;
Opening hours are as usual until the week of the 19th December
Monday 19th December 11 am-4pm
Tuesday 20h December 11 am -4pm
Wednesday 21st December11am-7pm
Thursday 22nd December 10am-7 pm
Friday 23rd December 11am-7pm
2Saturday 24th 10am until whenever the last customer goes home. :)
After Christmas, we will be closed on Boxing Day 26th, then open as usual until New Year's Day.
In January, we will open at weekends and Thursday mornings.
A quick note to our lovely customers-by buying fair Trade, you are helping to promote the community of artisans and producers worldwide who supply our stock.
We have curious cats from Katmandu, spotty dogs and dinos too-and, even the odd dragon or two-in Eighteen Rabbit!
There are socks, bamboo and cotton, Recycled aluminium bowls from India and recycled glasses from up the road in Brilley-local and lovely.
Octopus rattles from Bangladesh, Jenipher's coffi grown in Uganda and roasted in South Wales. Unusual and good value. There is much more, but please come and see yourselves!
Bright and beautiful earrings from South Africa, India and Peru.Delightful rubber wood toys from Sri Lanka-no plastic involved.
There is much more, but please come and see for yourselves!
Most communities have been hard hit not only by covid and its aftermath but also by the devastation and hardship brought about by climate change. and increased costs of everything.
Wales was the first Fair Trade Nation, and Hay on Wye is a Fair Trade town, so please support us and buy fair trade-as; it says in our window-"Do Good Today."
Thank you, and Merry Christmas, Nadolig Lawen
And a Happy New Year,Blwydden Newydd Dda
Ruth Szilvia and Layla.
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Monday 11am-4pm
Tuesday 11 am-4pm
Wednesday 11am-4pm if open (best to check)
Thursday 10am-4pm
Friday 11am-4pm
Saturday 10am-5pm
Sunday 12-3 pm
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Hello from Ruth, Szilvia and Layla!
For those of you who read the previous blog, we are the incredibly privileged staff who were gifted Eighteen Rabbit by previous owners Andrew Williams and Louise Davies in a rare and awesomely generous gesture. To say we are lost for words doesn't actually describe our excitement and gratitude (although it does explain why I have taken so long to write this!)
One of our main aims in taking on this new and uncharted venture is to Pay it Forward and in doing so to help support and promote Fair Trade principles and raise awareness about our suppliers, their stories,countries and way of life. I also think it's important to keep Fair trade going in terms of selling beautiful items gifts and homewares in a physical shop, to keep another shop open on the street in Hay on Wye and also I hope it is a fitting gesture of gratitude to Andrew and Louise who are happily not so very far away and can be relied upon for genuinely good advice!!
To Andrew and Louise and all our customers, quite simply,Thank you!
We aim to keep Eighteen Rabbit as beautiful as it was with Andrew and Louise-as customers your input and suggestions are very important to us so if there are any particular products which interest you or you would like to see back in stock please let us know.
We hope to see you soon in Hay on Wye.
]]>In early 2021, Eighteen Rabbit co-founders Louise Davies and Andrew Williams faced an uncomfortable decision. Having been closed for much of the previous year due to Covid, their six-year lease was coming to an end. The situation was further complicated by the fact that neither Andrew nor Louise were working full-time in the shop. On a day-to-day basis the shop was run by three dedicated and reliable staff members, Ruth, Szilvia and Layla. Should they sign a new lease, or accept that they had reached the end of the road?
It was while thinking about the future of the three part-time staff that the germ of an idea began to emerge. Andrew and Louise no longer relied on the income from the shop. But the fair trade projects around the world had never needed more support. So why not simply give the shop to their staff?
What started as an off-the-cuff remark has become a reality. Led by new shop manager Ruth Hayden, the shop will continue to trade under the Eighteen Rabbit banner for the foreseeable future. Over the past four months, Andrew and Ruth have undertaken a comprehensive handover programme, with introductions to key suppliers, analysing buying patterns and looking at administrative elements such as payroll and banking. Ruth has signed a new lease with the landlord, and as of 6th July, the shop will be hers.
Co-founder Andrew Williams commented, “This might seem on the face of it to be a bit mad. We had the shop commercially valued a couple of years ago and the figure quoted was £65k, although of course Covid has changed the retail landscape. It seemed a great fit for us though – and very much in keeping with the ethical ethos we have had along with the shop.”
Eighteen Rabbit co-founder Louise Davies added, “The main priority for us was ensuring that we could continue to support the incredible fair trade projects around the world. Our customers love the products and knowing they will still have an opportunity to buy them in Hay is fantastic news.”
New shop manager, and now owner, Ruth Hayden said, “I am really excited about this new chapter for Eighteen Rabbit! It has been a steep learning curve, but I'm committed to continuing and developing this meaningful and important retail business. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone during what we hope will be a busy summer in Hay.”
]]>1. Hopefully, this short, sharp lockdown will help to suppress the virus and give us a fighting chance of celebrating Christmas with some sense of normality.
2. At least in Wales we are all in it together. It has been a patchwork of approaches up to now, which makes it very confusing for anyone to follow the rules. At least for the next two weeks, we all know what we're supposed to do (in theory!).
3. We are still open online, and continuing to process orders as normal. It may take us slightly longer - hence why we've suspended our first-class shipping option - but we will get your items to you as quickly as we can! We really appreciate the support.
4. We are a lot better off than many other parts of the world. We know from speaking to our partners and artisans across the world that Covid19 has hit everyone extremely hard. Here in the UK we do have basic protections, and we are lucky enough to have socially-conscious people across the country who are looking out for people worse off than themselves (here's to you, Marcus). So let's count our blessings :)
5. Everyone connected to the shop has kept fit and well so far, which we know makes us very lucky. We are thinking of you all, around the country and around the world, and hope that you and your loved ones stay safe.
We are here to help if you have questions about any stock items or things you'd like to see us stocking in the run up to Christmas. We'll be back open in Hay before you know it - take care until then!
]]>If you want to keep up to date with all of our news, why not sign up to our newsletter? We're hoping to send these out every Friday again now that we're up and running. It's quite often silly, but usually with some actual information too :)
Here's this week's to give you an idea of what's in store!
]]>It's a beautiful day today, and we hope the sun is shining wherever you are. It has been a bittersweet week for us - normally, this would be one of the busiest times of year, with Hay Festival in full swing. Instead, they are sharing some events online, and we are waiting and hoping to be back again soon.
Our online store remains open, though I should apologise that a number of lines are very low on stock. I'm sure you can understand that we are not in a position to order new stock while the physical shop remains closed. Fingers crossed, as we start to see restrictions lifted, we'll be able to add more stock online. To help you navigate the shop, we have now updated the site to only show products which are in stock. We hope this makes it easier to navigate.
In the meantime we are working to make our shop in Hay safe to visit, with what will be the new normal for everyone I imagine - screens, hand sanitiser, and directional arrows around the shop. We will get there!
Our key message to you is to stay safe. We wish you, your friends, and your family all the very best in this challenging time. We look forward to welcoming you back to Hay very soon!
]]>For me, we have reached the "fixed grin" stage of the Coronavirus. Everyone is doing their best to muck in (albeit safely), community spirit is at an all-time high, and neighbours are watching out for each other. How long it lasts will, you suspect, depend on how long people have cash in their bank accounts.
It would be easy to implore you to think of independent businesses, small retailers like Eighteen Rabbit who face big problems in the weeks ahead. Or to consider hospitality businesses, cafes, bars and restaurants, who right now will be trying to work out how to pay this week's wages. I could even take the moral high ground and ask you to consider our suppliers, artisans and entrepreneurs in the developing world who rely on fair trade retailers in the west to give their amazing products a market.
But I think the truth is that no-one knows where we are going, how this will end, or what situation we'll be in once the dust has settled. I am often characterised as a slightly Pollyanna-ish character, and I have to admit there is a part of me which would quite like to see a world where emissions from industry and aviation have fallen, people feel more in touch with their communites, and ideas such as a universal basic income are being seriously considered rather than dismissed out of hand. Equally, I can see storm clouds ahead over drug patents, nations taking an isolationist approach to protecting their citizens, and a spiraling pit of mental health issues.
Fair trade - the concept that people should be treated fairly - ultimately comes from a place of love. It would be nice to think that this current crisis can inspire us to see the world as a place we need to cherish and nurture, to see people around us as fellow human beings rather than foreigners or aliens, and to see wealth and capital as something to be shared as a common treasury rather than hoarded by latter-day dragons. We'll see which way the dice fall.
Stay safe out there! Huge thanks to Rabbit Fan and Boaty Buddy Danette St Onge for the inspired title of this blog.
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Yesterday, the Guardian ran a piece entitles "Is Fair Trade Finished?" and while the findings weren't quite as apocalyptic as the headline might suggest, it's still food for thought (and well worth reading). Too often we think of big corporations as benevolent consumer champions, stocking products based on their ethical credentials, when in fact these organisations are motivated primarily by profit. If we as consumers don't tell them they have got it wrong, they will veer quite quickly to the lowest denominator on price and quality.
Good news is never too far away though. We are big fans of Positive News, the magazine that focusses on the little successes that can often be missed by the 24 hour news cycle. They had celebrity praise from none other than Bill Gates this week, who tweeted his support of the magazine. It's a great read and we have the latest issue available online now!
]]>They are constantly delighting us with new lines, and we have some beautiful new earrings and pendants available online now. While most of the Just Trade jewellery we sell is brass, these lines are silver and gold plated - a lovely touch of fair trade luxury :)
They are all made by the "Flowering Desert" project in Tamil Nadu, India. Perfect for fans of fairtrade (and maths!).
]]>We have ten designs in total and all of them are available now on the website. Bottle tops are flattened and then wrapped in traditional Botswanan fabric. They come in smart presentation boxes and are all £12 a pair. We are very pleased to be able to support this fantastic project!
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Our magazines have been chosen to reflect what we do in the shop - so broadly they cover modern living, ethical issues, sustainability and the great outdoors. There has been an explosion of these "coffee table" journals over the past few years, and we have found them to be hugely popular in the shop.
Titles currently available include Positive News, which often contains contributions from "Under the Tump" author Ollie Balch; Another Escape, looking at sustainability and outdoor living; and Delayed Gratification, a "slow journalism" publication that takes us out of the 24 hour news cycle and looks at the news three months in arrears.
We hope some of these will appeal, and we're adding new magazines all the time.
]]>We have more great news too. Our friends at Positive News, one of our best-selling magazines in the shop, have offered to match our copy of Greta's book with a free copy of the latest issue of the mag. A truly inspiring combination!
If you are under eighteen or have friends or family who you think would be interested do please spread the word and ask them to pop in to the shop in Hay. See you soon!
]]>We believe that the climate emergency we face is the most serious threat the human race has ever faced. As a fair trade shop, we also know that it is the poorest countries which suffer most from our changing climate. We need urgent action, and so far, our governments have let us down. Instead, it has fallen to activists like Greta Thunberg and the Extinction Rebellion movement to make people sit up and listen. We hope that by reading what Greta has to say, a new generation of Hay activists may be able to succeed where our current leaders have failed.
A free copy of Greta’s book will be available to anyone from Hay on Wye and the surrounding areas who calls into Eighteen Rabbit. While the usual “small print” will apply, there’s no need to bring ID unless you are lucky enough to look older than eighteen.
]]>We were delighted to be featured in a preview of the Festival in the i newspaper -
There is so much to see in Hay over the Festival, but here are a few of our highlights from the programme...
Friend of the shop, Richard King, is doing a few events this year to support his new book, "The Lark Ascending." Catch him in conversation with Peter Florence.
King of American Noir fiction, James Ellroy is in Hay over the second weekend.
Music maestro and celebrity vegan, Moby will be talking through his memoirs - turns out he wasn't always so clean living :)
Live music highlights include the Waterboys and the Gypsy Kings, but we'll be at the front of the queue for Ezra Furman on Tuesday night.
]]>This new design called "Murmuration" is sure to be a big hit over the summer. We also have some classic designs back in all sizes...
This "Mountain Bear" design is back in small to XL - great for outdoors types!
As well as our unisex tees, we also have some fitted tops for women:
This "Under the Sea" design is perfect for eco-conscious sun lovers!
]]>The straws come in a pack of two - made of sustainable bamboo.
The toothbrushes are also bamboo, with a tree planted for every pack purchased!
The olive oil soap is vegan, and paraben and palm oil-free - just a great, natural bar.
Let us know what you think and if you'd like to see more similar products.
]]>One of our best-loved suppliers, Lanka Kade, are based in Sri Lanka. Mercifully, as far as they are able to tell, none of their workers have been directly affected by the attack. I believe they are mostly based in the north of the island, away from big cities such as Colombo. Nevertheless, given the scale of the casualties, it is inevitable that some friends and family will have suffered injuries or been killed.
You can keep up with the latest news from Lanka Kade by following their Instagram feed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those suffering in Sri Lanka.
]]>Cholera and malaria are now a real threat in the area, as a lack of fresh drinking water combines with people being forced into cramped and crowded conditions to make outbreaks more likely.
The Disasters Emergency Committee has now launched an appeal for aid for the survivors of one of the worst natural disasters in modern times. DEC brings together 14 aid agencies in a combined effort to direct relief to where it is most needed, and their representatives include Oxfam, Tearfund, Save the Children and the Red Cross.
Please take a break from Brexit and give whatever you can to help alleviate this terrible disaster.
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