Anyone who has spent time abroad will look at the items in a Fair Trade store and say "Hey - I could have bought that in (enter developing country name here) dirt cheap! Where do they get off selling things for a higher price here?" Working at a FT store in Washington, DC this was something I heard repeatedly. So what is the difference between the coin purse you bargained down to $.50 and the one that your local FT store is asking for upwards of $5 for? And what about the cheaper purses from Guatemala that you can buy in the US at a non-fair trade store? Intuitively you can argue that the producer of the good may not have been paid well; the person at the market is most likely a middle man pocketing a sizeable chunk of the profit; labor conditions are unknown; workers are unorganized; children may have been involved in the production process instead of being in school. I found a great explanation of the difference from Colores del Pueblo - a Fair Trade company that works directly with artisans in Guatemala to bring their products into the export market and sell them in the US. (www.coloresdelpueblo.org) They compare two purses (with picture) - one that sells for $0.38 and one that sells for $2.00 through a Fair Trade artisan cooperative. The differences are as follows: * "One costs $1.62 more than the other. * One was purchased in the market in Guatemala and one from a fair trade cooperative. * One helps Guatemalans break out of the continuous cycle of poverty and the other keeps them in it. 1. The weaving of either coin purse requires two hours. 2. The sewing of either coin purse requires ten minutes. 3. Bringing the product to market and/or finding a buyer requires additional time. 4. Both coin purses require $0.30 in materials. Background: The coin purse on the left sells for $.38 in the market. That price leaves only $.08 to compensate all the people who helped to produce and bring the coin purse to market, but only after transportation, energy and sewing machine costs are covered. What will $.08 buy in Guatemala? Only 2 plain corn tortillas, without beans, without anything. Only the tortillas. Not enough to sustain a child for one meal. It seems incredible that anyone would work so hard for so little benefit. But competition in Guatemala is fierce. Artisans and middlemen are poor and desperate. They know they have to sell at the lowest price possible or someone else will. Thus, they are trapped in the cycle of poverty. The purpose of cooperatives is to band artisans together to set prices in order to begin to compensate those who bring the product to market with a reasonable wage. As you can see from the breakdown, the wages are still modest but they can provide the basic necessities that mean the difference between a mal-nourished, chronically ill family and a healthy family." Check it out for yourself, and the Colores del Pueblo company at: http://www.coloresdelpueblo.org/Truth.htm