How are you doing?

How are you doing?  That's a question we get a lot this time of year.  People wonder will Small Planet Trading be here after another winter?  Will it simply not make it like a few other favorite stores in town?  It's not always an easy question to answer.

We absolutely love bringing Fair Trade to the Gorge.  Finding products made so lovingly with the earth and it's people in mind makes our hearts sing.  Having the privilege of getting to know so many people who really care about how they spend their money, what vision of the future they support and how they affect their community is humbling, exciting and just plain fun.

We've always been committed to a simple business model that supports our community, artists near and far, and ourselves.  It is not the easiest way to do business.  It is not a model that generates fast growth.

Life has many interesting twists, and when we first opened for a holiday season, with a small seed investment and a shared space-- we had no idea how many turns life would take for the store, for each of us personally and for the wider community.

All the conventional business advice we get is the same-- we are underfunded and should either call it quits or borrow money against our house.  We've never been much for conventionality, so we continue to search for our own way.

Many people tell us how they enjoy doing their holiday shopping with us.  We love that too-- but it does not sustain us the rest of the year.  Tourism helps, but we aren't in the busiest tourist spot.  So what do we do?  We try and stock items that our loyal friends need regularly.  We look for items that are useful as well as unique.  We partner with local artists.  We keep our costs exceedingly low.  We stretch our creativity.

And yet we still are not sustainable enough for even one full time person to be paid at minimum wage.

Where does that leave us at this moment?  Having to make choices and decisions.  Not today, but through the winter.

First we'll be closing on Sundays so that we can enjoy a family day--it's been a while since we've had that on a regular basis.

Next we'll be dreaming and working on creative ways to collaborate with others to keep going.

Want to be part of the dreaming?  Have an idea to share?  Have energy to help keep Small Planet a reality?  Let us know, we're open to a new twist or two.  DeLona and Karen