Exercise your purchasing power: Fair trade shops in Edmonton
Your purchasing decisions affect more than your own bank account — they can impact those who produced the goods in the first place. By choosing fair trade items, you’re supporting a system that promotes improved trading conditions for producers. Better wages, along with improved social and environmental standards, make that chocolate taste all the sweeter.
Villages Goods
10432 82 Ave NW, Edmonton, AB T6E 2A2The shelves and display cases at this shop are always full of intricately made pieces of jewellery, home décor, hand carved wooden boxes and many other items from around the world. As the oldest and largest fair trade organization in North America — it was created in 1946 — the shop is a great bet for incredibly unique products crafted by artisans in developing worlds through fair trade relationships.
Planet Organic Market
7917 104 St NW, Edmonton, AB T6E 4E1With a downtown and a southside location, you can purchase fair trade items on both sides of the river. Fair trade items correspond well with the grocery store’s mandate of selling items that are both environmentally and socially responsible. Coffee, tea, sugar and chocolate are just some of the fair trade items you can purchase here.
Wild Earth Bakery & Cafe
8902 99 St NW, Edmonton, AB T6E 3V4The smell of freshly brewed coffee blends with the aroma of a carrot cake — it’s the perfect combination. Wild Earth Bakery sells fair trade coffee so you can have your cake and coffee and feel good about it, too.
Earth's General Store Ltd
10150 104 St NW, Edmonton, AB T5J 1A7Organic fruits, vegan substitutes and beeswax candles are just some of the specialty items occupying the shelves of this local store. The south side location has a whole area devoted to books, and a substantial dried foods section. Meanwhile, the downtown one has a deli and fridges full of grocery items. Both, however, carry fair trade items in the form of chocolate, coffee and tea, to name a few.
Carbon Environmental Boutique Ltd
12543 102 Ave NW, Edmonton, AB T5N 0M4This shop, located in the High Street area, is dedicated to sustainable living. You’ll find sustainable décor items — from paint to carpeting — as well as cleaning supplies and insect repellent. And, fair trade items are intermingled among them, so you can ensure you’re helping both from an environmental and social stand-point.
Transcend Coffee
8708 109 Street NW, Edmonton, AB T6G 1E9This coffee shop is dedicated to providing customers with the highest quality coffee possible. They carefully choose between producers and, when they decide on one they want to work with, the relationship is seen as one between colleagues — therefore, fair trade relationships make the most sense to them.
