Shop locally. Act globally. Buy proudly.
That might be a lot to ask of a trip to the mall. But the Poughkeepsie Plaza, positioning itself to be the nation”™s first “fair trade mall,” offers products made with environmentally sound practices that support both overseas workers and the bottom line of shop owners at one of the region”™s oldest plazas.
“You are leading by example,” state Assemblyman Frank K.Skartados, D-Milton, said, addressing a May 7 gathering of the Dutchess Regional Chamber of Commerce, celebrating the kickoff of the fair trade effort at the 52-year-old Poughkeepsie Plaza.
A fair trade mall was suggested to Poughkeepsie Plaza management by Cecilia Dinio Durkin, owner of Women”™s Work at the mall, which carries products from women”™s collectives and artisans Durkin worked with when she and her family lived in Africa. The store also carries products from elsewhere in the world certified by the Fair Trade Federation.
“If you only have a dollar, you want it to count; you want your money to go somewhere that has more value than just what you walk away with,” said Durkin. “I think that is what people are looking for and what they find in fair trade goods.”
Certified fair trade goods were valued at $4.08 billion worldwide in 2008, a 22 percent increase over 2007, according to Fair trade Labeling Organization, an international certifying group which estimates 7.5 million producers and their families benefit from the system.
Fair trade has no formal definition but is generally viewed as a partnership based on workplace transparency and workers”™ rights and environmental sustainability in product production. Ideally, the system creates new economic opportunity for marginalized workers.
A journalist by profession, Durkin was traveling in Africa working on stories with her husband, whose field is wildlife conservation. She tried to help craftspeople she met in her travels market their wares. She also bought lots of items, ultimately enough to fill a shipping container and returned to the United States and opened a shop in Cold Spring. But in October 2009 she moved her store full time to the Poughkeepsie Plaza.
“The store is doing very well in Poughkeepsie,” she said.
She said the placement in the plaza where people shop for everyday goods is a key factor in the store”™s success, because it brings fair trade goods from a tourist venue in Cold Spring to mainstream shopping.
“People who use this mall live locally, so I thought since other stores in the plaza are established mom-and-pop stores that have stood the test of time, fair trade items would be a nice attraction, and will also work because storeowners here can choose what they want to bring into their store, whereas if they were chains they are limited to what national buyers select.”
“It”™s win-win,” said David Steltenkamp, co-owner of the Dragon”™s Den game shop. “You can shop locally with global impact.”
Though Dragon”™s Den seems an odd venue at first for fair trade products, Steltenkamp said he is ordering fair trade hand made chess sets and hacky sacks and may purchase additional board games and toys.
Besides co-owning the game shop, Steltenkamp is an adjunct professor of business at Marist College who believes the fair trade movement can contribute to global economic stability. “It gives people a chance to stay in their native country and still make a decent living,” he said, by providing economic opportunity without environmental destruction.
“A lot of time the quality is better than what I get through mass production,” said Steltenkamp. “I don”™t see how I can lose at this proposition.”
That view is echoed by plaza manager Josephine Dayger, who provided her tenants with information on fair trade practices at Durkin”™s urging. She said the concept was well received. Though it is obviously impossible for a plaza to offer only fair trade goods, she said she is working to ensure that stores in the plaza offer at least some fair trade products.
“There are fair trade stores, and fair trade businesses and even industries like coffee and chocolate, but there is not a mall where you have a combination of stores within a location where a large percentage of them is willing to carry at least one fair trade product,” said Dayger.
“We are a bunch of retailers who under the auspices of the Poughkeepsie Plaza have decided to be a fair trade mall,” said Dayger. “That is our goal and that is what we are attempting.”
