Ok, show of hands...
Do you drink starbucks coffee?
Why?
a. it tastes good
b. they let me bring my laptop and sit there for hours
c. it is so well priced (hehehe)
d. it is fair trade coffee
e. There are just so many dang Starbucks locations it is hard to avoid them
No, no, no. This is not a morality test. I may wax sentimental from time to time, but I am looking for the down and dirty here.
Really. I am totally serious. Please ignore for a minute the fact that we advertise SHONA products as fair trade products. I don't want you to think about SHONA. I want to know whether you care that Starbucks serves fair trade coffee. In fact, do you buy fair trade products in general? Why? Why not? What are your immediate associations to the term "fair trade"?
Please take a minute and comment on this question if you have the time. Because, as I mentioned a minute ago, we do sell SHONA products as fair trade. And they truly are. But I'm not always sure I like the company we keep. Sometimes I wonder if the fair trade concept is getting popular or if it is getting hijacked. And as one of our customers once pointed out, she almost didn't visit our website at all, because she assumed fair trade would simply be too expensive for her. So what has fair trade become? Do you "buy it", in every sense of the word?
I'd love to hear from you.
1 comment:
I like the idea of fair trade products in theory. I have listened to the argument from both those that are pro and those against Fair Trade and I must admit I sit on the PRO side of the fence at least in theory. However unitll there is a better way for the supermarket chains and the various retail outlets to ensure that its cost effective to shop this way (keeping in mind i am coming from an angle of a family of 5 living in Queensland,s Gold coast so every cent needs to be to the best value for us) it really is not something that I am ble to do even with all the best intentions.
But to answer the initial question I dont drinlk Starbucks I would rather give the three bucks to my local coffee shop whom is an owner operator on their own, living and working in my area if they happen to use Fair trade beans thats an added bonus but I am a firm beliver that your own back yard is as good a place as any to make change so I will ask my cafe mate if he can use Fair trade beans and if it menas an extra 10 cents on my coffee I will happliy pay that but if its an extra 50 cents to a dollar I would have to really consider the cost v's the claimed benifits that fair trade makes as the reults are not visible to a 1st world consumer in reality are they. As the doubter in me always thinks some one is making a buck prior to the farmer getting a fair go and the whole certification and commonly higher product costs are not the work of the coffee farmer in Africa, PNG or S America some ones making profit by "Going Fair" so to speak.
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