Among the disappointingly low number of free-trade stores in the metro, Ten Thousand Villages is one of 160 retail stores in North America specializing in an eclectic selection of African, Asian and Latin American products. The coffee (get a free sample near the jewelry counter) is one of the store's biggest draws. Of course, there's more to it than caffeine, considering the store promises that makers of its goods were given fair value for the items. The store's best sellers are baskets and bowls (woven from recycled newspaper and magazines, from the Philippines) and Goldfish River rocks, which are pulled from a river in north Vietnam, then lacquered and painted with an artisan fish design. Sure, on first glance, the store doesn't offer anything radically different from a Pier 1, but how many other shops can promise that they didn't stiff the makers of your newest find?
