Greetings fair trade supporters!
Many of you have been asking where you can buy products from www.World-Shoppe.com in person. Well, we're happy to report two exciting developments:
1) www.World-Shoppe.com will be opening up its first retail space in the Andersonville neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois! We'll be opening in a few weeks and will make sure to let every single person we know about it - in the meantime, share the info with your friends and family! We'll be at the Andersonville Galleria at 5247 N. Clark Street (for those of you familiar with the area, it's Foster and Clark streets). Yippee!
2) Holiday fairs are an important part of our business as it not only allows us to communicate the message of fair trade, but also allows us to interact with customers one on one and to share the stories of each of our products. I'm very excited to share that we've increased the number of events by DOUBLE this year. So, no excuses, Chicagoans, you can definitely find us somewhere to purchase your fair trade holiday gifts this year!
Here's where we'll be in the coming weeks:
November 3-4; 10:00 – 4:00
Notre Dame for Boys
7655 W. Dempster Street
Niles, IL 60714
November 4, 8:00 - 3:00
St. Paul the Apostolate
320 South Washington Street
Park Ridge, IL 60068
November 10-11 (Saturday; 12-5 and Sunday, 9:30-1:00)
St. Giles in Oak Park, IL
1045 Columbian Ave.
November 11 (Sunday), 8:00 - 7:00
St. Alphonsus at Southport & Lincoln Ave in Chicago
November 11 (Sunday), 10:00 – 2:00
Hanukkah Bazaar
Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation
5800 N. Kimball
November 12 (Monday), 11:00 – 1:45
DePaul Atrium, Lincoln Park campus (1st floor atrium of Student Center, corner of Sheffield and Beldin)
December 1, (Saturday) 10:00 – 4:00
Berry United Methodist
4754 N. Leavitt, Chicago
December 1-2 (Saturday and Sunday)
Saturday, December 1, 2007 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Sunday, December 2, 2007 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
LYCÉE FRANÇAIS DE CHICAGO Holiday Bazaar
613 West Bittersweet Place
Chicago, Illinois 60613
December 5 (Wednesday); 11:00 – 4:00
Loyola University Student Center – Centennial Forum Student Union (CFSU)
1125 W. Loyola Ave in Chicago
Thank you, everyone! I can't wait to see many of you at our events!
Megy Karydes, Founder
www.World-Shoppe.com
312-560-2715
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
Why Our Artisans Are My Role Models
We have so much to be thankful for and we sometimes forget. But when I think of what we're doing with http://www.world-shoppe.com/, I remember to be thankful for all that we have.
Many of our artisans are women. It's no surprise - women make up the majority of those who live in poverty. Through our purchasing power, and other fair trade groups around the world, these women now have hope. Hope that their skills and passion for their work will not only get noticed, but someone will actually buy their work! Now that's pretty powerful.
Women everywhere (and men, too) just want to experience new things, explore what life has to offer them. It shouldn't be an option to eat every day or be able to have a roof over your head when you sleep at night, or to sleep in silence and not hear bombs or guns going off outside. But for many of our artisan groups, this isn't odd - it's more commonplace than not.
I've said this before but I think it begs to get mentioned again - I'm not naive enough to think I can save the world alone, but together we can make a real difference in our artisans' lives. And even if we can change the world for one person - isn't that a start?
Thank you again for your ongoing and relentless support. We're excited to be bringing you our new pieces just in time for back to school and the holiday season. While it's really early for us to be debuting the pieces right now, they've started coming in and many of you have been asking to see "what's new" so we'll show you some pieces!
Enjoy the rest of summer!
-Megy
Many of our artisans are women. It's no surprise - women make up the majority of those who live in poverty. Through our purchasing power, and other fair trade groups around the world, these women now have hope. Hope that their skills and passion for their work will not only get noticed, but someone will actually buy their work! Now that's pretty powerful.
Women everywhere (and men, too) just want to experience new things, explore what life has to offer them. It shouldn't be an option to eat every day or be able to have a roof over your head when you sleep at night, or to sleep in silence and not hear bombs or guns going off outside. But for many of our artisan groups, this isn't odd - it's more commonplace than not.
I've said this before but I think it begs to get mentioned again - I'm not naive enough to think I can save the world alone, but together we can make a real difference in our artisans' lives. And even if we can change the world for one person - isn't that a start?
Thank you again for your ongoing and relentless support. We're excited to be bringing you our new pieces just in time for back to school and the holiday season. While it's really early for us to be debuting the pieces right now, they've started coming in and many of you have been asking to see "what's new" so we'll show you some pieces!
Enjoy the rest of summer!
-Megy
Monday, July 23, 2007
Blog on our Web site!
Finally - after months, we finally figured out how to post our blog on our Web site! So, anytime you check out www.World-Shoppe.com, please visit our Blog, too, to hear of upcoming events and news about fair trade, our new producer groups, or just new information about the world of conscious consumerism.
One of the things that was reinforced to me recently is the way fair trade is intertwined with the eco-friendly movement that seems to be taking over the marketplace like a crazy storm. Mind you, fair trade has been involved in recycling since fair trade became a concept since many artisans have very little to use in way of "raw" material, so they often use what is readily available whether that is old old drums in Haiti (which make beautiful wall decor when "carved" into designs), or old soda pop cans (which are transformed into fun pins in the shape of cats or people), or water hyancith that clogs the waterways in Bangladesh (which become gorgeous and practical stationery).
The point is that while we're excited that people are beginning to take a closer look at global warming and taking action, we're even more excited that people are finding us as another resource for eco-friendly products that have been designed to minimize our footprint but have also been designed as a way of life for many of our artisan groups.
Until next time, thank you for your ongoing and relentless support...
-Megy
One of the things that was reinforced to me recently is the way fair trade is intertwined with the eco-friendly movement that seems to be taking over the marketplace like a crazy storm. Mind you, fair trade has been involved in recycling since fair trade became a concept since many artisans have very little to use in way of "raw" material, so they often use what is readily available whether that is old old drums in Haiti (which make beautiful wall decor when "carved" into designs), or old soda pop cans (which are transformed into fun pins in the shape of cats or people), or water hyancith that clogs the waterways in Bangladesh (which become gorgeous and practical stationery).
The point is that while we're excited that people are beginning to take a closer look at global warming and taking action, we're even more excited that people are finding us as another resource for eco-friendly products that have been designed to minimize our footprint but have also been designed as a way of life for many of our artisan groups.
Until next time, thank you for your ongoing and relentless support...
-Megy
Friday, July 13, 2007
Like this blog? Mark this as one of your favorites!
I’m not sure if this will work – but here’s the code to help readers of my blog mark this blog as one of their favorites!
Claiming my Blog
I just learned of technorati and "claimed" by blog. This whole blog thing just fascinates me - I hope you're enjoying the postings!
Technorati Profile
Technorati Profile
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Items Coming in for Busy Holiday Season
Right now, most of us (including us at http://www.world-shoppe.com/) are doing everything we can to stay cool. It's been pretty hot in Chicago lately. But, we're also finalizing our orders and starting to receive shipments for the busy holiday season!
We're so excited to see what it coming our way. BEAUTIFUL jewerly just dripping with gorgeous beads. Deep reds, golden oranges, rich purples...we can't wait to get them on the site!
We're also gearing up for our annual media campaign letter the national media know about the great work our artisans are doing! If you know of any great media outlets that would be interested in covering fair trade, please let us know!
Looking forward to introducing our new items soon - in the meantime, feel free to email me at Megy@World-Shoppe.com with any comments!
We're so excited to see what it coming our way. BEAUTIFUL jewerly just dripping with gorgeous beads. Deep reds, golden oranges, rich purples...we can't wait to get them on the site!
We're also gearing up for our annual media campaign letter the national media know about the great work our artisans are doing! If you know of any great media outlets that would be interested in covering fair trade, please let us know!
Looking forward to introducing our new items soon - in the meantime, feel free to email me at Megy@World-Shoppe.com with any comments!
Monday, February 05, 2007
Description Cards - why they are important
One of the difficult things about launching a Web site to promote fairly traded items is that you do not always have the chance to talk about the artisan producers with customers one on one. One of the ways we get around that is by including a description card with each and every item we ship out. The description card describes not only the item, but we're usually able to include information about the artisan group as well.
Nonetheless, a description card can only include so much information. That's why we're going to start using this forum to introduce new groups we're working with and to give a little more info on others.
Our first one - which we'll cover in a few days - will be The Corr-Jute Works group from Bangladesh. It's a beautiful story of how these artisan groups have made a livelihood for themselves by creating pretty jute fiber market bags among other items. We've started featuring their bags this past weekend and, as usual, we've already begun getting orders despite the fact that our shipment isn't due until later this week.
I hope you enjoy the regular artisan focus stories! And keep your comments coming - they are refreshing to hear!
Nonetheless, a description card can only include so much information. That's why we're going to start using this forum to introduce new groups we're working with and to give a little more info on others.
Our first one - which we'll cover in a few days - will be The Corr-Jute Works group from Bangladesh. It's a beautiful story of how these artisan groups have made a livelihood for themselves by creating pretty jute fiber market bags among other items. We've started featuring their bags this past weekend and, as usual, we've already begun getting orders despite the fact that our shipment isn't due until later this week.
I hope you enjoy the regular artisan focus stories! And keep your comments coming - they are refreshing to hear!
Friday, January 19, 2007
www.World-Shoppe.com Participating in GreenFest in Chicago
Greetings, everyone! Well, I'm not blogging daily yet, but I am hoping to get there soon! There is just so much to share and so little time. Running around two little ones under the age of two takes up most of my "free" time! Nonetheless, I did want to start getting the word out that www.World-Shoppe.com will be showing our amazing, beautiful, awesome artisan-made products at GreenFest in Chicago! It's the first GreenFest in Chicago and we're hoping our Chicagoans will make us proud by coming out and supporting the Fest! We'll be sending out notices in our upcoming e-newsletters but we also wanted to get the message out, too!
Thanks again, everyone, for helping make 2006 our best year ever. But that title won't be held for too long - as we're going to top that one in 2007!
Thanks again, everyone, for helping make 2006 our best year ever. But that title won't be held for too long - as we're going to top that one in 2007!
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