Carillon City Cares About Fair Trade
Australia just wrapped up this year’s Fair Trade Fortnight, a national annual event that celebrates fair and ethical trading values. As part of that, and lining up nicely with Mother’s Day, Carillon City hosted a Fair Trade Pop-Up.
The Pop Up was the brainchild of The University of Western Australia’s Students in Free Enterprise team in partnership with the Fair Trade Collective. Its mantra was “Every Choice Matters.” The center set aside a vacant tenancy for the group, made up entirely by student volunteers, as they set up earlier this month.
The store sold items sourced from communities around the world including Indonesia, Cambodia, India, Tanzania and Peru. For shoppers looking for something unique (and uniquely ethical) for Mom, it was a shopping extravaganza, with giftwares, homewares, tea, coffee, chocolate, fashion and accessories.
The pop-up not only did well for shoppers and the artisans whose work was sold, it brought plenty of attention to the center. It received excellent media coverage, appearing online, in gift guides and on television.
Project Coordinator Shannon Ziegelaar said the store was an innovative way to address multiple needs in the community.
“The pop up is about selling and raising awareness about Fair Trade products which is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in developing worlds. We aim to create a mainstream demand for Fair Trade products,” Ziegelaar said. “Setting up a social enterprise is a fantastic learning opportunity for us, the university students managing the project. We have students involved from a range of disciplines. They include recent high school graduates through to masters students.”
City of Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi welcomed the Fair Trade Pop Up to the city.
“It is great to see more and more pop up shops opening in the CBD and Northbridge,” Scaffidi said. “This is a fantastic way to bring to life some of the vacant shops while leasing agents find new tenants. There is no better way to showcase a vacant tenancy than by showing its potential through hosting pop up shops or temporary galleries.”
“I hope more leasing agents and property owners consider these types of agreements which often support not for profit groups and other collectives.
