How can a sale be fair trade?
We hope you all had a peaceful, relaxing Christmas! We enjoyed having some down time and focussing on the important things in life. Now that we're back in the shop, our minds turn to the seemingly inevitable prospect of "the sales." But if we're focussed on fair trade, how can we offer sale reductions? Wouldn't that mean that the producers were losing out?
The simple answer is no - we always ensure that our producers are paid fairly. For most of the suppliers we work with, we will pay for the goods at the point of order - so the artisans have the cash before they even send us the products. So why on earth would we offer discounts on lines we've already paid for?! There are three good reasons...
Firstly, we want to encourage people into the shop and to visit our website at what would otherwise be a very quiet time of year. By offering sales discounts we can tempt people to shop with us who might not normally visit us - thereby hopefully gaining us repeat customers during the year. Secondly, we want to free up as much cash as we can at a quiet time of year to allow us to invest in new stock. This means we can keep the shop looking fresh and support a diverse range of different projects. And lastly, there's a simple issue of space - if we want to be able to showcase some of the amazing things we hope to bring back from Mexico, we need to have the shelf space to do it.
So when you see us offering sales or discounts you can be clear in the knowledge that we are never squeezing our suppliers on price - so you can grab a bargain with a clear conscience!
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