Fair trade gifts return to the Bookie

 

Lauren Gifford, senior, psychology major, and a Bookie employee, displays several
Fair Trade items (Photo by Hope Belli Tinney, University Relations)

 

 

PULLMAN – Woven scarves, necklaces and earrings studded with semiprecious stones, embroidered purses and bags, paper-crafted boxes and bowls — fair trade gifts are back at the Bookie.

 

Distributed by World of Good, the fair trade products are located on the lower level of the Bookie near the stairs. Though the products are eye-catching, there is very little signage to tell the story of the artisans who created them.

 

But over the next few weeks that could change. On June 18, students in Mark Mulder’s class on retail strategy, marketing 470, will be presenting marketing plans for these fair trade products to Joanna Koliba, manager at the Bookie.

 

“The students are really designing the space from the ground up,” said Mulder, who is earning his doctorate in marketing. “How do you tell the story of the artisan?”

 

The class is divided into three teams, each with a particular focus: the campus community, student groups and the Pullman community.

 

Asking people to buy a product because the person who made it is poor is not a sustainable business model, Mulder said, but educating people about fair trade practices, living wages, and the societal benefits of supporting the work of small-scale artisans is.

 

The challenge, he said, is how to do that in an integrated way that empowers the buyer to choose fair trade items when given that choice.

 

If people understood the fair trade concept, he said, they might ask themselves, “Am I trapping someone in poverty by buying this, or am I helping someone break out of poverty and earn a livable wage?”

 

Mulder said his interest in fair trade and fair trade issues deepened during a study tour he helped lead in South America several years ago. Talking with entrepreneurial workers in Brazil and Argentina was a transformational experience and one that continues to inform his research and teaching.

 

Kyle Simmons, who earned his bachelor’s degree at WSU and is finishing his master of accounting degree his summer, said Mulder’s enthusiasm has been contagious.

 

“Mark is very passionate about this and he’s gotten all of us to be passionate about it as well,” he said.

 

Simmons said he has particularly enjoyed applying what he is learning in class to a real project. His group has conducted survey’s, met with community members, and spent time at the Bookie trying to figure out how best to promote the World of Good products.

 

World of Good was established in 2004 with two related but separate entities. One is a for-profit business that works with artisans around the world to buy their products at a price that affords them a living wage and sells those products wholesale to other stores, such as the Bookie, and online. The other entity is a nonprofit development organization involved in microfinance grants in the developing world and creating a sustainable and ethical business model for fair trade practices around the world.

 

Mulder said he believes that student bookstores are perfect locations for selling fair trade items. “Here we are at a college campus,” he said. “We are living the educational dream that so many people in the world aspire to.”

 

Koliba said Mulder approached her about selling fair trade items in the Bookie several months ago and she was enthusiastic.

 

“The assortment is great, the prices are great,” she said. “I don’t think it is going to be a difficult thing to sell at all.”

 

According to Koliba, the Bookie carried fair trade products several years ago, but there wasn’t much public awareness of the fair trade movement. “At the time it didn’t really catch on,” she said.

 

Now, she said, she’s looking forward to seeing the students’ marketing plans. “So far the students have been very engaged and excited about the partnership and the program,” she said.

 

Mulder said his students have been talking with many people and doing quite a bit of research about how best to market fair trade items. If their ideas are successful, he said, they may be creating a marketing plan that other Barnes and Noble collegiate stores can implement as well.