Our Fair Trade policy is to give the co-op 50% upon placing the order and paying the remainder of the order upon receiving it.  We always pay what they ask and sometimes more if we feel they are not making a sustainable wage.  We realize that if they are not making a living that they may not be there to work when we place our next order.

We know for a fact that by giving these Mayans work we are keeping their children is school as it is not free for them after their child is in the 6th grade. This is one of the reason we are trying to keep our prices as low as we can to create more work here in Guatemala.  Its a blessing to see what these people can do with just .50 an hour.  You must realize what their cost of living is,  a police officer makes less than a dollar an hour. Their electric bill is about $8.00 a month.

I have been asked to leave two different fair trade stores in the last couple of years. I guess I ask the wrong questions. I asked how they can charge so much for there items? How can they charge $8.95 for a .50 cent item? It was a woven coin purse The managers response was the we don't pay .50 for it we paid .90 cents to our supplier.I thought it was unfair for the weaver to make nearly twice as much as her neigbor, thus creating jealousy. I asked why they did not charge a fair mark up like $5 so that more people would buy more thus creating more work for the people they are trying to help? I then asked how much their CEO made last year and was then asked to leave.