How is the Fair Trade movement different now from its inception?

How is the Fair Trade movement different now from its inception?

Sam Bills (Manager) gives expert video advice on: How did the Fair Trade movement get started?; How is the Fair Trade movement different now from its inception? and more...

Moving away from where the idea of charity and Fair Trade goods being a kind of token of a donation being made or something like that to where Fair Trade is being seen as being able to compete in the marketplace. Fair Trade businesses are successful now not simply because people have a sense of charity but because it's the best stuff that's available. For instance, Ten Thousand Villages owes it's success to the fact that they have great stores, sell great stuff, and people want to buy it. Clearly, Fair Trade goods are moving into the marketplace and are competing with other goods because the cost is right and because they're great products, and because they're helping people in developing countries. When you bring all of those things together, that is the exciting future of Fair Trade - that it is competitive and it can survive in the marketplace, and is not just a good idea for people to help people in less developed countries, but is something that people want and it has a whole package.