Shopping in Specialized Fair Trade Shops: The World Shop as an ethical safe haven

• In Event: 383 - Section on Consumers and Consumption Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Consumers and Consumption Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Food and Shopping

Abstract

Different studies on fair trade consumption implicitly argue that there is a relation between consumers’ adherence to fair trade principles, and the place of purchase (customers with a strong adherence shop in specialized shops). This study explicitly focuses upon this link between point of purchase and fair trade shopping, by focusing upon the practice of shopping in specialized fair trade shops situated in Flanders, Belgium. Over the years, these specialized shops have known an interesting evolution in Flanders, as it has been attempted to lower the perceived threshold to shop in these settings. Building upon insights and concepts of practice theory and science and technology studies, attention is directed to how the practice of shopping in a specialized fair trade shop is enacted. This is done through focusing on the interplay of both the ‘provision’ side (the fair trade shop as point of purchase), and the ‘demand’ side (the customers of the shop). Data consists of interviews with developers/implementers of the fair trade shops’ new shop concept, document analysis, store visits, on the spot observations and interviews of 55 customers, and in-depth interviews with 9 of these customers. It is argued that strong adherence to fair trade is often not highly at stake when shopping in these specialized shops. An explanation for this can be found in the fact that the shops have the image of an ethical ‘safe haven’, in which customers do not need to be very attentive towards ethical claims when shopping.

Authors

• Robbe Geysmans, Ghent University

• Lesley Hustinx, Ghent University