By Tom Hanlon-Wilde, West Sales Manager
 This autumn, Equal Exchange West is encouraging stores on the west coast to dedicate a meaningful part of their store to showcase items grown by family farmers and traded under Fair Trade terms.
If you shop at any one of our wonderful retail partners in the West, October will be a great time to stock up on Equal Exchange coffees, teas, chocolates and snacks, because retailers will be offering special prices to promote the "Small Farmers. Big Change." theme.
End cap contest
October is Co-op Month and retailers and broker field representatives in the West can win a trip to Peru by participating in the End Cap Display Promotion being organized by Equal Exchange's West Sales Office. Equal Exchange will select two people (one store representative and one broker field representative) to travel during the week-long visit to the coffee farmers scheduled for August 2009. To be eligible, the nominee must develop an in-store display of Equal Exchange foods and submit a photo of it to our Hood River office.
Building relationships
Every year since 1999, our West Sales Office has created an interchange between store owners and managers and the farmers who grow their coffee. In 2000, the Western Sales Office hosted a Peruvian coffee farmer for a tour of U.S. stores. The following year, we took many of those same U.S. food business leaders to live and harvest with the farmer in his or her community. The last trip to Peru generated a half dozen articles by the U.S. travelers and was followed up by a visit to the Pacific Northwest by CEPICAFE's Juan Castillo. We’re excited to continue building these relationships on the next trip!
Who is eligible to enter?
Field representatives of our broker partners who work with their stores to build displays of Equal Exchange foods can submit a photo of the display to Equal Exchange West. Retail managers can submit photos of their store to nominate themselves to be selected for a separate seat on the trip.
*Participating stores may include co-op store members of the Co-op Grocers Association or stores operated by Town & Country (Seattle), New Seasons (Portland), PCC Markets (Seattle), Market of Choice (Eugene), New Leaf markets (Santa Cruz), Natural Grocery Company (Berkeley), Vitamin Cottage (Colorado), and many others.
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