By Rita Cook

It’s hard  enough to open up a store and find great products to sell, but even more difficult when you set out to find products that help create sustainability and make a positive impact.



When Andrew and Kate Jones decided to open their McKinney store, Fair and Square Imports (a named derived from not only their location in Downtown McKinney, but also so it would be clear to passersby that all the items inside are 'fair & square' meaning fair treatment of artisans and fair prices for customers) that is exactly what they set out to do.


“Fair & Square Imports only carries imports that are fair trade,” Andrew Jones says. “Fair trade is a system of exports/imports that not only aims to pay fair wages, but also ensures safe working conditions, community investment, no child exploitation, honest and long-term relationships, environmentally friendly, pre-purchases and prompt payments and equal opportunity for women.”

With a wide assortment of recycled and sustainable products made of everything from tires to magazines, Jones says each item is helping individuals help themselves and their families out of poverty in over 30 developing countries.  Often times these items are created in response to conservation or city clean-up efforts,” he explains. “For example, we have hand-carved stools made with farm-raised monkey pod wood in Thailand, handcrafted by rice farmers during their off-season for extra income.”

The store also carries a purse made of recycled seat belts that is handcrafted by artisans working with 'Conserve India,' an NGO that helps reduce trash in Dehli while helping extremely poor women find opportunity.

Video on Fair and Square on Channel 5
http://www.nbcdfw.com/the-scene/shopping/McKinney-Store-Promotes-Fair-Trade-173965351.html

The Jones’ find the items they sell in their store by working with 40 different nonprofits and development groups that work directly with hundreds of artisan groups worldwide.

“They oversee production and exportation, making sure that fair trade principles are upheld throughout the entire process,” Jones explains. “They pay artisans upfront and promptly, then we purchase the items from the organizations.”

Living in the Richardson/Plano area, the couple have lived in a variety of states around the country eventually making their way to the Dallas area where Kate’s family lives.


They opened the store in September 2012 and since that time Fair & Square Imports has offered items for everyone with their most popular being the jewelry, chocolate and the Singing Rooster coffee. 
The chocolate comes from Divine Chocolate, one of the only chocolate companies in the world that gives its cocoa growers part ownership and shares of its yearly profit working with a cocoa farmer co-op 'Kuapa Kokoo' in Ghana. The Singing Rooster Coffee is a nonprofit that helps Haitian Coffee farmers rebuild Haiti's economy.

Other favorite items include the Elephant Pooh Paper, an eco-friendly paper made out of elephant dung.  “In Sri Lanka, elephants are being killed by villagers when they cross onto farmers' land, often devastating the farmers' crops,” Jones explains. “However, 'Mr. Ellie Pooh' has been starting up handmade paper facilities in rural areas and training local villagers to make paper with the hope that the newly created industry will help the villagers value the elephant as an asset instead of a threat.”

There are also the Sseko Sandals from Uganda and Haitian Metal Art, where in Haiti the metal art area of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, is known for artisans who create art out of recycled oil drums.

For regular Fair & Square Import shoppers there is a loyalty punch card featuring a map with several dots around the world and once a customer purchases products from each of the regions marked on the card they receive a $10 gift certificate to use on their next purchase.

Much of the store is also furnished with recycled items from the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore Resale Outlet. The counter is made out of a recycled Formica kitchen counter top, the tablecloths are displayed on an old rod iron fence and the jewelry is displayed on old pallets mounted on the wall.

“Purchasing fair trade empowers consumers everywhere to help end cycles of poverty across the world,” Jones concludes. “Like us, impoverished artisans need and desire opportunity, dignity, job creation and empowerment--a hand up, not a hand out. Therefore, when an artisan's creations are available and purchased worldwide, it makes their craft economically viable, ultimately allowing them to help themselves, their family, and their community out of poverty.”

Fair and Square Imports
219 E Louisiana St,
McKinney, TX
(469) 343-4421

 http://sites.fairandsquareimports.com/welcome/


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Rita Cook is an award winning journalist who writes or has written for the Dallas Morning News, Focus Daily News, Waxahachie Daily Light, Dreamscapes Travel Magazine, Porthole, Core Media, Fort Worth Star Telegram and many other publications in Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago.  With five books published, her latest release is “A Brief History of Fort Worth” published by History Press.  You can contact her at rcook13@earthlink.net