Ethical Trade Co: 10 years of empowering vulnerable artisans

Welcome to Wisconsin's local music scene.

This is Max Ink Radio.

We are local music.

Ethical Trade Co.

It's a retail store on Madison's east side that features niche products from around the

world, made by artists and crafts people who are once victims of the sex and slavery syndicates

around the world.

And here, tell us about the store, the website, and the construction that's going to be

coming up.

Ethical Trade Co.

It's Founders, Manuel Raminger, and James Ferrett.

And, well, James, welcome back to Max Ink Radio.

Thank you for having us.

Yeah, always lovely to be here.

It's great to see you guys.

Yeah.

And, you know, Ethical Trade Co.

I've been enjoying the chocolate, the coffee for a long time.

But, you know, maybe our listeners aren't sure maybe who this is.

They're new to this.

Tell us a little bit about Ethical Trade Co and your mission.

Yeah, so we are a non-profit that empowers people around the world to make livable

wage in their communities, specifically people that are vulnerable to exploitation due

to extreme poverty.

That means that we have lots of wonderful fair trade items or fair trade like items in

terms of payment that artisans get in our store.

I think we have items from about 16 nations.

Yeah, something like that.

Yeah.

And when you say fair trade, clarify that they're wording.

Yeah, our mission is for people that we source from to make a livable wage in their

communities.

So, that's what that means, fair trade, livable income.

Correct.

Fair trade means that there is a fair commodity price that is being paid.

Oftentimes, that's not even a livable wage.

But, so that's where we come in or that's where our mission is beyond fair trade to empower

people to have the ability to have childcare, to have every time and fun because those

of things that even here in the US will throw people into dire straits.

And that's one of our missions.

Right.

So, like you're actually saying that you're not trying to drive down the wholesale price

or you can make a profit, you're making sure that they're actually getting a livable wage.

Yeah.

That's exactly right.

Yeah.

A lot of cases, we're talking three to five times the local rate for a product.

So, like spices, the farmers are getting three to five times what they would get from

a, from like a McCormick or somewhere like that.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's incredible.

You're artisans and you're farmers and the people that you're working with, that you're

selling their products, how is that connection made?

Yeah.

So, we worked through existing networks that we've built up over the last 10 years.

A lot of that is either friends of sort of other partners that we have.

Also we have access to some wholesale marketplaces that a lot of fair trade groups are connecting

to just because it gives them access to a larger network of boutiques.

Wow.

So, why do you do what you do?

Yeah.

We are motivated by the fact that all people are valuable, that injustice and exploitation

of people is wrong and something that needs to be remedied.

Just on the way over here, I was thinking about the story I talked to my son about recently.

Personally, I and James follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and I was telling the story

about this water that would, you know, the story has it that an angel would come and touch

the water at the first person that would jump into the water, would get healed.

There was a man there that had been waiting for 30 years, he had never been able to make

it into the water and you can see how unfair that seems, right?

You're waiting and Jesus in this story comes and has compassion, says, hey, get up, you're

healed.

This compassion for people, you know, there's this other story about this extremely rich man

that is so, you know, appropriate right now, this extreme rich man lives in luxury and

everything he would ever want and there's an beggar named Lazarus, the beggar has a name

that lives at his gate and the dogs come and they lick his sorrows and they help him out

and that way, but he lives off of the crumbs from the table from the rich man.

And then the rich man dies and he goes to Hades and the beggar goes and goes to heaven and

this is this compassion that we're being taught, you know, not this nationalist way that

you see in America today, but like a true following of this teacher that preached compassion

and that's really what motivates us to when we see people that can't feed their kids

so the kids are being sold in slavery, we try to approach that with that same compassion

that we are taught by our master.

That's really why we're doing this.

Wow.

Oh, it's okay to preach like that here.

Well, that's a great inspirational story and it definitely has a moral.

You can see exactly why you're doing it.

Tell us more about now you have a retail store and a website.

Tell us a little bit more about the products that your guys are selling these fair trade

products.

Yes.

So we do.

We have a lot of fair trade food.

We're talking chocolate, coffee, tea, dry fruits.

We have olive oil, we have olives, we have spices, we have a whole range of Indian spices

now from India.

They're really fresh and we're a great Korean-owned, Indian-owned, wonderful spices and then we

also have a whole range of gifts because we're primarily a gift store outside of the holiday

season.

We mostly sell food, but during the holiday season we sell tons of gifts.

And what I love about it, all the stuff on there, it's sourced from fair trade.

It's making a difference in the communities that the products are being made.

There's a wide selection of stuff on your website.

You get everything from wearables, clothing, table stop, houseware kind of stuff.

If you're looking for a gift for somebody, ethicaltradeco.com, it's definitely the place

to stop.

Yeah.

Yeah, it is.

ethicaltradeco has become a community partner of the University of Wisconsin.

Tell me about this partnership.

Yeah, so when I was filling out the questionnaire, there was this question about, do you have any

fun stories to share?

And I was like, this is kind of a fun, serendipitous story.

We were doing the Madison Night Market here and it was a windy day.

It was just a really crappy day.

I got to be careful with the words I used to be, don't get a slap of a fine.

Can I get a sweat in German?

Yeah.

Better not.

You need to talk to a boy who was about that.

It was one of those days, right?

And we made like no money.

We actually lost money because earrings were flying and we were like, this is dumb.

And we broke things.

And this lady walks into our tent and goes, man, well, I was like, yeah, who are you?

And she's like, I came to your store on Park Street.

And you know, it's so great to see you here and you have to meet this professor.

He is her number.

So she gave me the number and I called the professor.

She gave me another number of Professor Mike McWire and we became community partners.

And when you asked for fun stories, I was like, it's just such a fun, encouraging story,

especially in this time.

We're like, there's so much going on that's discouraging in the same way.

Now that we're moving, we got to move because we have, we're rebuilding basically the community

center, the East modern community center that we're in.

I don't know if we're talking about this now after the break or whatever.

No, that's okay.

Okay.

We got to move and we will land at a new place, Trinity Lutheran Church, but there's also

very justice focused.

And these things keep happening on the same side of town, like right next to where one

barrel used to be and the, oh, yeah, sure, it's the camera of first street in Winnebago.

I know that.

Well, we have, we have a stage right there for that one first.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

Down the road.

I know every part hole in that area.

Yes.

I'm excited about that and these things keep happening to us and it's just wonderful.

I thought that was a wonderfully encouraging story that even though it was a day that was

not very good, it led to a partnership that, you know, now we're going to be partners

of the university.

What does that mean?

Community partners.

Like, what is the partnership?

So we get to share, we get to speak on one of their, one of their nonprofit courses twice

here.

We've also been invited in to speak with some of the, the clubs that the students run

to.

And we have available that work with us and do projects for us in the fall.

So it's a really cool partner.

So they get to learn from you guys.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

That is really cool.

You know, you're celebrating the 10th in the 10 year anniversary of ethical trade co at

the Ulbrich Gart beer garden on Sunday, June 15th right here in Madison.

How does it feel to have reached this milestone 10 years?

I can't quite believe that we've made it this far.

Yeah.

So many times we're like, I don't know about you guys, but you feel like you're maybe a month

away from bankruptcy.

Oh, yeah.

Like, and we've lived there for 10 years.

Yeah.

And it's like, yeah, we're still here and it's like, oh, my word.

So it's, it's going to be quite a celebration that we made it this far.

When does the new store open up?

It's not going to be for another year.

Oh, another year.

The building that we are going to be moving in July to the new place at Trinity Lutheran,

which is really going to be a temporary location.

And then the building that we are currently in the small and community centre, that's

coming down in August and they're expecting it to be a year, but you know how building

guys.

It's going to be a year, six months or so.

I would say that.

So you'll be moving back there.

Yeah.

We're moving back when it's rebuilt.

Yeah.

Wow.

We're hoping that you can shop for holiday seasons with us, right?

Yeah.

So this year for the holiday season at Trinity and then next year for the holiday season

at the new place.

Yeah.

Oh, that's amazing.

That's awesome.

Meanwhile, and James with us here from ethical trade co ethical trade to code.com.

If you're looking looking for gifts, if you're looking for some chocolate or some coffee,

which I highly recommend because it's so delicious.

And if you want your purchase to feel good and go for a good cause and empower the

artisans and the farmers, making the stuff and producing the stuff to make a fair wage,

that's what ethical trade co is all about.

If people want to get more information about your store, obviously we can go to the website.

Where else can people connect with you at?

So the website is probably going to be the best place.

If you want to get hold of us, there's a little contact us button on there.

I mean, you can come to our current store, which is 3565 Tulane Avenue, which is in the

back of the eSmart and community center, but we're only there until the end of June.

After that, we're not sure how long it will be, that transition until we open up again

at Trinity City, Lutheran.

But really, if people want to get a hold of us to the website, contact us through there.

It's probably the best option.

And I would assume when you go online, you order goods, shipping in and all that, it's

very easy, right?

Yeah.

If you order over $55, it's free shipping, but you can almost, you can always pick up from

the store.

And we offer 24 hour contact.

Let's pick it.

Pick up.

Yes.

That's amazing.

And then we left over that extra eight cents.

Yes, exactly.

Yeah.

And you guys are, I gave, I think I gave, James, I think I spoke to you on the phone.

Yes.

I was like, hey, we need a sponsor for the Rocker Jamboree.

And you both graciously said, yes.

Thank you for doing that.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, you're welcome.

Thank you.

The Rocker Jamboree happy Sunday, May 5th at the Bur oak in Madison here, it's going

to be a great night, benefit help rocker out with this out of pocket medical costs or

a heart attack.

And of course, we're donating money to Mama Cares, an organization that helps all kinds

of artists out with stuff.

So thank you very much for your support.

Are you welcome?

Thank you for asking us.

Yeah.

You guys rock.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Come back again, keep us posted on the, on the happening.

So we'll have to come down and see the new temporary store during that would fast.

Yes, definitely.

Yes.

It'll be fun.

If you're ready.

If not, we'll just bring chocolate out to you.

Yes.

Thank you.

If you get on stage, you can run, it could be the ethical trade co stage if I have the

chocolate.

We're going to clear that with rocker first.

Oh, boy.

Oh, boy.

I've talked to the lawyers.

Yes.

I have the new, the flavor that kills song coming up in just a couple of minutes right

now.

It's Bingbong.