Some might say Violet Crichton is the perfect employee. The 74-year-old comes to work on time, works hard, passionately believes in the products she sells and doesn't ask for a dime in return.

Even more impressive is that there are hundreds more people much like her working at Ten Thousand Villages boutiques across Canada selling Third World crafts.

"It certainly helps," says Beverley Hiebert, national sales manager for Ten Thousand Villages Canada. "We would have a hard time showing a profit at the end of the year if we didn't rely on volunteers."

At the stylish downtown Kingston shop where Crichton works, there are only two paid staff members - a manager and an assistant manager. The rest are volunteers who, like Crichton, passionately want to see Ten Thousand Villages succeed.

Michael Lea, Business Edge
Violet Crichton volunteers in the Kingston Ten Thousand Villages store, one of 42 in Canada that helps provide fair income to 60,000 artisans in Third World countries.

That's because Ten Thousand Villages isn't your typical retail boutique.

It's a program created by the Mennonite Central Committee, a relief and development organization based in Akron, Pa., that works in 50 countries around the world.

There are 85 Ten Thousand Villages stores in the United States and 42 in Canada, the newest one being the Kingston store where Crichton works.

A non-profit organization, Ten Thousand Villages provides fair income to 60,000 artisans in the Third World by marketing and selling their handicrafts, chocolate, coffee and other products. The aim is to ensure the artisans' basic needs for food, clothing, housing, medical care and children's education are met.

On average, the artisan is paid 25 per cent of the retail price. With shipping, warehousing, marketing and other overhead costing 30 per cent, and store operating costs running at about 40 per cent, only five per cent is left over for Ten Thousand Villages.

It uses that money to repay loans and ensure money is left over for growth.

Artisans receive 50 per cent upfront and the rest when the product is ready for shipping.

It's not always the most profitable way to do business, but for Ten Thousand Villages, it's the right way, Hiebert says.

After all, fair trade is a commitment to social justice whereby producers, such as craftspeople and farmers, are treated and paid fairly.

"There are some horror stories where the artisan has to get a loan to make the products when they receive an order from a large company - they get into debt, they're paying a loan shark huge fees, so in the end they don't make any money. In fact, they lose money," Hiebert says.

"These are the kinds of things we're trying to work against," she says.

With such social responsibility ranking so high in its priorities, it may seem a wonder Ten Thousand Villages makes any money at all.

But it does.

Sales at Ten Thousand Villages stores in the U.S. increased by four per cent last year to more than $15.2 million US, leaving a surplus of $266,000.

At Ten Thousand Villages Canada, sales increased by 10 per cent in 2004 to about $8.3 million. Hiebert, who is based in Winnipeg, says the organization expects to do even better this year.

The Canadian operation, which is based west of Kitchener-Waterloo in New Hamburg, purchased $3.6 million of products from 103 artisan groups in 31 countries.

It helps that global demand for fair-trade products is expanding.

Sales of fair-trade certified products increased by almost 42 per cent in 2003, according to Ottawa-based TransFair Canada, a national non-profit organization that certifies organizations as fair-trade entities and provides public education on fair trade.

Global sales of fair-trade cocoa products increased 110 per cent in 2003, followed by sugar at 79 per cent, tea at 57 per cent, and bananas and fruit at 40 per cent.

The top seller in Canada is coffee. Canadians bought more than $28 million worth of fair-trade coffee last year.

Chantal Havard, communications and education co-ordinator for TransFair Canada, says the increase in fair-trade product sales is due to growing awareness.

"More and more people have heard of fair trade and are more concerned about social, economic and environmental impact," Havard says. "More people realize by buying fair-trade certified products they can have a direct impact on people's lives."

At Ten Thousand Villages, for example, every $3,500 in sales supports a Third World artisan and his or her family for a year.

According to a study by the Coffee Association of Canada, more and more coffee drinkers are turning to fair-trade certified coffee.

In 2001, only four per cent of Canadians purchased fair-trade certified coffee. But, in 2005, 16 per cent have bought it.

Meanwhile, the number of licensed fair-trade certified companies in Canada grew to 124 in 2004 from five in 1997.

Crafts and consumables aren't the only products Canadians like to buy under ethical circumstances.

Adventure outfitter Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) has committed itself to what it calls "ethical sourcing" and does not do business with sweatshops, communications manager Tim Southam says.

Vancouver-based MEC, which has 10 stores across Canada and another opening next year in Victoria, has 2.2 million members in 192 countries. Canada's largest retail co-op also had $169 million in sales in 2004.

To ensure that the factories from which MEC buys comply with international labour, health and safety standards, the co-op conducts audits. In 2004, 25 audits of 23 factories were conducted, Southam says.

MEC has also increased its commitment to ethical sourcing by allocating an additional $75,000 to factory audits last year and it has created a new position - social compliance manager - that reports directly to the chief executive officer.

"Many of our members support ethical sourcing and/or fair-trade practices," Southam says.

"However, we don't do it because they're demanding it of us, but because it's the right thing to do.

"For a values-based organization like MEC, ethical sourcing is part and parcel of our business culture," he says.

About half the Ten Thousand Villages stores are corporate, while the rest are operated as franchises by local organizations, such as church groups.

The store in Kingston is a corporate store, but it came at the invitation of the parishioners of three local churches, one of which Crichton attends.

The three churches held a festival last fall and sold Ten Thousand Villages products to raise money for the organization.

Ten Thousand Villages sent more product than requested, but the community's response was phenomenal, Crichton says.

"It was good enough that we were all encouraged to pursue further ideas of having a permanent store in town," she says.

The Kingston store opened in June and Crichton's never been so excited to go to work.

"Those of us who work there feel as if it's our store even though it's run by Ten Thousand Villages," she says.

(Frank Armstrong can be reached at armstrong@businessedge.ca)