Notch a Niche for the Fair Trade Spirit

Just over the hill from my home in Vacaville, California is Soul Food Farm, where the chickens run free and the eggs are found in a pasture. This appeals to a cadre of customers willing to pay higher prices for fowl food which has not been raised or slaughtered in foul ways.
     This niche market covers items well beyond the chicken and the egg. And according to food studies researchers at New York University-Steinhardt, the niche market is growing.
     A market increasing in size provides opportunities for small to midsize retailers.
     One impetus for the growth is a concern about food safety. Another impetus is what I’ll call the fair trade spirit. Account for that spirit in your retailing—whether you sell food products or not—and the spirit could become embodied as increased profitability.
     The fair trade movement advocates a willingness to pay a premium to suppliers who treat workers humanely and conduct their operations in ways that sustain the environment. Its origins were in sales by developing countries to developed countries of items like coffee and handicrafts. The spirit of free trade can now apply to sales within a developed country of a broad range of items, and of the humane treatment of animals, not just workers.
     We all want to be good. Well, most of us do. At least most of the time. Okay, maybe it’s not so much that we want to be good as that we want to view ourselves as intending to be good. In any case, it can be tough.
     Make it easier for your shoppers to pull it off when they’re in thrall to the fair trade spirit. Tempt your customers into being good.
     Both the challenge to doing this and a straightforward way to meet the challenge were highlighted by researchers at Washington State University and University of Texas-Austin The researchers noticed how consumers who intended to buy animal friendly cosmetics, sustainable wood furniture, and fair trade clothing very often failed to ask about those issues at the point of purchase. The consumers would use the information to make their selections if the salesperson told it to them, but otherwise seemed to prefer to stay unaware of it.
     To tempt your customers into being good, tell them at the point of purchase about the ethical aspects of the products you sell.

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Keep It Tempting to Be Good
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