And I could have more [time to appreciate] the people, the craft, the food and everything like that. The second trip I actually went with our wholesaler groups, so I was with like-minded people. My favorite part about that trip is that I designed an ornament and, while we were there, I got my first sample [of it]. I have the original [hanging] on my Christmas tree. What did you want to be when you grew up? Something to do with art. I was very into photography in high school. I have shot a couple of weddings, but I would never do that again. That is the most stressful thing. In high school I won some awards for photography, so I always had that in the back of my head. But that was pretty much it, something artsy. Tell us about the origins of fair trade. In the ‘40s there was a woman named Edna Ruth Byler, she was a Mennonite. She began traveling to Guatemala and these women had the most beautiful pieces of [embroidery] that she had ever seen. And she wanted to help them. It started with her buying a bunch of it, bringing it back to the United States and selling it—then going back [to Guatemala] and giving the women the money and then doing that [process] all over again. And then it just evolved from there. How has the process changed in the decades since Edna Ruth Byler? Some of the biggest fairtrade organizations in the U.S. serve 10,000 villages. But it’s evolved from going and doing the purchasing and bringing it back and selling it— which is not sustainable—to having a certain amount of money, designing all of the things, and making sure that the people are actually being paid a fair wage— which is the main part about it. How has fair trade grown in the public consciousness over the years? When Baksheesh first started, their tagline didn’t have anything to do with fair trade because it wasn’t a term that was known well enough. Their original tagline was, “handcrafted gifts from a developing world.” But that just shows you how long ago it was—and then it has just evolved to most people knowing what fair trade is. Now it’s practically mainstream. It’s huge now. When you go into different fair-trade stores you will see a lot of the same things, but there are also an insane amount of different items I don’t carry because there is such a vast choice. It didn’t used to be that way; there were barely 10 people that you could buy from. Now I have 30-plus different wholesalers who work with hundreds of thousands of artisans across the world. I’m also appreciative of the fact that it’s entering grocery stores—it’s in Trader Joe’s, it’s in Whole Foods. It’s in places where it’s more accessible rather than just in a boutique shop. What do you do on your days off? I like to walk, so I always get a very long walk in—like, very long. I used to live in Boyes Hot Springs and my house was 3.1 miles from the store. My husband and I like to watch movies—Halloween, horror and Disney. But really, I’m a home body. I go on my walks, come home, clean the full house and then relax. That is like my favorite thing to do ever. It’s nice to just relax and be happy at home just hanging out. Name a favorite item in the store? My original favorite is obviously the [ornament]. The absolute best sellers in the store are the [stuffed] alpacas. No joke, these are the best sellers in the entire store. It is out of control. It varies throughout the year but for the past three years it’s been like 3% of our sales of the whole store. I do multiple big shipments of about 250 at a time. They come loose in a box, so you open it and it’s just puff. And then I just scoop them out and we sell between 60 and 100 a month.
January 2024
NorthBaybiz 71
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