Your Downtown Neighbor: Kindred Fair Trade Handcrafts

What is Kindred?

Kindred is a fair trade store, which means that everything we sell is made by hand by global artisans in developing countries. And ‘fair trade’ means they’re getting a living wage, clean and safe work conditions, and there’s no forced child labor. You know that everything you’re getting in the store is made ethically and sustainably, and it’s really helping people in other countries.

How long have you owned the store?

I’ve owned the store for nine months now, and I’m the third owner. Kindred has actually been in downtown for sixteen years. It has a very good customer base; people love the store. Being the next owner in line has been a lot of fun for me.

What is being on Courthouse Square like?

We love the Square so much! It brings traffic into the store, especially those big events that draw people from out of our community, so IRONMAN and the AMGEN Tour of California and all the things that come are really great for us. We also just love the presence of being downtown. Looking out at the Square every day is so nice - it’s like being in a park. We love to see event tents going up and music being played. It feels like the downtown is more alive and we get to interact with more people in our community and outside of it. It’s great, we love it.

What changes have you made to Kindred?

Recently, I did a complete remodel of the store. It had looked the same for the last 15 and a half years - which is not bad at all. Everyone loved the look - it was so warm and welcoming and had lovely things inside - but I wanted to modernize a little bit, elevate the products a little more. I created a bright white background so that all of our colorful items are popping off the walls. We’re warming it up with some wood elements and plants. Elevating fair trade a little bit more.

What are you most looking forward to this year?

We are about to launch online sales, which is super exciting for us. We have the website - right now it’s sort of a landing page to let people know that it’s coming. But we’re doing all of the background work now, taking all the photographs, writing descriptions and such. We want to be able to hang on to those customers who come from out of the area. They come and they don’t have any way to stay in touch with us, so now we are going to have these online sales that’ll help people from around the world buy from our store. And it’s also more convenient for our local people too. That’s our biggest initiative of the year.

Plus we’re celebrating the fact that we’re 16, so we’re implementing a birthday club. People who enroll in the club get a $10 gift certificate to the store to spend on their birthday. And plus we’re going to have a big June bash and monthly specials. So we’re still planning it, but yeah: this is going to be a big year for us. We’re excited.

Any last comment for our readers?

I just hope that people come downtown. There’s so much happening down here. There’s new restaurants opening, the stores are all great, and the Square is welcoming. You can sit and enjoy whatever’s happening, or just enjoy a lunch out there. So I hope that people come downtown and experience what we’ve got going on.