An editor's note has been appended to this article

Nestled between fine eateries and other distinctive boutiques, Ten Thousand Villages is a fair-trade retailer that sells artisan-crafted home décor, personal accessories and gift items from across the globe. Featuring products from more than 130 artisan groups in some 38 countries, the Main Street store is part of a network of over 390 retail outlets throughout the United States selling fairly-traded products.

Ten Thousand Villages, which stems from a project birthed in the basements of churches, has a title that doesn’t always resonate at first encounter. But if one has any background knowledge about fair trade, Ten Thousand Villages, the oldest fair trade retailer in North America, may inspire a compelling visit.

Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based technique that aims to help producers in developing countries create better trading conditions and promote sustainability, advocating the payment of a higher price to exporters as well as the establishment of higher social and environmental standards. Most notable fairly-traded items found in the United States are handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, chocolate, flowers and gold.

Now in its 66th year, the company still attempts to uphold these values. In 1946, while traveling in Puerto Rico, Mennonite Missionaries encountered women weaving elaborate table linens and inquired about where they could be bought and sold. They returned to eastern Pennsylvania with these treasures in hand, and friends of the missionaries were captivated and wanted to place their orders for the next visit. These missionaries later founded the first Ten Thousand Villages location in Bluffton, Ohio.

“At that moment, a light bulb went (on),” said Bill Henderson, the Main Street store manager. “These people could become a direct conduit from artisan to consumer and cut out the middleman, allowing the artisan to make more money for the delicate work they put in.”

Ten Thousand Villages has cultivated trading relationships in which artisans receive a fair price for their work and consumers gain access to distinctive handcrafted items. Seeking to establish long-term buying relationships in places where skilled artisans who are under- or unemployed lack other opportunities for income, their network helps struggling artisan groups who are in need of assistance.

In Cambodia, for example, people are shunned for their imperfections, even those resulting from being maimed by land mines or other such types of devices. Artisans who belong to this maligned group compose jewelry and accessories out of the bombshells and materials that brought about their disfiguration. Other artisan groups, such as those in India, consist of women rescued from human trafficking who make recycled saris as an outlet to help them cope with their trauma.

Despite this solemn background to certain kinds of fairly-traded items, when a customer enters the Ten Thousand Villages in Ann Arbor, the background music and clamor of customers evoke worldly vibes of serenity, and the message is digested: “Our mission is to promote dignity, hope and a living wage for artisans around the world by selling their handicrafts, by telling their stories and by educating locally about Fair Trade,” reads the company’s mission statement.

Henderson explained that the aim is not to bombard the client with fair trade information, but instead to whet their appetite with the sounds and colors that greet them. The direction is to educate the community about what it means to sell fairly-traded products, but it is important that the customer seeks this education out first.

“We like to combine the process of selling and telling, connecting stories with the products,” Henderson said.