Nonprofit shop Ten Thousand Villages (915 King Street) recently celebrated 30 years in Old Town.
The shop offers fair trade goods from over 35 countries made by international artisans with fair trade, meaning artisans receive fair prices for their work.
The nonprofit was founded in 1946 and the Alexandria location opened in 1994. The non-profit has locations across the country.
Kate McMahon, managing director of Ten Thousand Village’s Alexandria location, said that while the non-profit side of the business hasn’t changed too much since she joined in 2008, retail on King Street has gone through dramatic changes.
McMahon said the business had its best year in 2012/2013, but over the years there’s been plenty of ups and downs, through inflation, recessions, Covid and more.
The store has seen a wide variety of goods come through the door, from wood-carved masks to cute terracotta planters in the shape of animals.
McMahon said the thing that sells best are personal accessories like scarves and bags.
“Our handmade jewelry and personal accessories are our biggest categories,” McMahon said. “That’s some of the most creative stuff we have here. We have jewelry from all kinds of things, from a nut from South America called tagua to repurposed brass shell casings of unexploded ordinance.”
McMahon said the store isn’t quite a chain, each location is financially responsible for itself and McMahon picks what goes on the shelves. Some parts of that store experience still surprise her. Recently, she said she got an order of cute fabric cacti no larger than four inches tall designed to just sit on the desk.
“When they came in I was like ‘are you serious?'” McMahon said, “but they flew off the shelf.”
Ten Thousand Villages is open from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday.
