A Fair Trade Retailer

As one of the world’s oldest and largest fair trade organizations, Ten Thousand Villages has spent more than 60 years cultivating trading relationships in which artisans receive a fair price for their work and consumers have access to distinctive handcrafted items. We seek to establish long-term buying relationships in places where skilled artisans are under- or unemployed, and in which they lack other opportunities for income. A founding member of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), Ten Thousand Villages sees fair trade as an alternative approach to conventional international trade.

Our network of non-profit retail stores, staffed by dedicated volunteers, enables us to bring a world of wonderful, hand-crafted items to you while paying our artisans a living wage. Since its opening in July 2005, Ten Thousand Villages of Tallahassee has enjoyed the good will and enthusiastic support of the Tallahassee community. The opening realized the hope and the dreams of Tallahassee’s Emory Hingst, a retired Lutheran Minister, who had visited the Ten Thousand Villages store in Montreat, NC several years before. Over the ensuing eighteen months, Emory persuaded a group of committed local citizens to embrace his vision of a non-profit, fair trade store in north Florida. With the encouragement and guidance of Ten Thousand Villages US, the group raised start-up funds, formed a non-profit corporation operated by a Board of Directors, hired a manager, and recruited and trained volunteers for the store before opening its doors under the bright yellow awning. We are located in Market Square on Timberlane Road, in the heart of Tallahassee’s northeast shopping district.

Community Shopping Nights: Tallahassee’s Ten Thousand Villages is not only devoted to helping the underprivileged in other countries, we are dedicated assisting those in need within our own Tallahassee community. Each month, we co-host at least one community shopping night to benefit other local nonprofit organizations. In exchange for introducing more people to our store, we donate 20% of our community shopping night proceeds to our nonprofit partner. Community Shopping Nights are typically conducted on Tuesdays or Thursdays between 5:00 and 8:00 pm. In the past year, we were delighted to host a number of nonprofit organizations, including the Women’s Pregnancy Center, St. Francis Wildlife Society, The Shelter, and Brehon Institute for Family Services.

Community Outreach (Speaker’s Bureau & Educational Presentations): Part of the mission of our Tallahassee store includes education about fair trade and its impact on the lives of people who produce and sell their products in fair trade markets like Ten Thousand Villages. We are available to make presentations to community groups, churches, and civic organizations. We can also conduct age appropriate educational sessions for elementary or secondary school students in school or Sunday school settings. Our presentations can be modified to adjust to your time constraints and can be conducted either at your location or in our store.