Cleveland Plain Dealer – April 2, 2017
By Janet H. Cho
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — Starting Tuesday, Ten Thousand Villages fair-trade store in Cleveland Heights will say farewell after 14 years in business. Everything in the store will be marked 30 percent off, while supplies last, including the furniture, fixtures and display cases.
Laura Potter-Sadowski, executive director and store manager of the nonprofit Ten Thousand Villages Cleveland, said she hopes to wind down for good by April 21. …
Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and author of Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses, said: “Two years ago Amazon launched Amazon Handmade with the aim of doing to sellers of artisan goods what it had already done to so many booksellers and local retailers.”
“Amazon wants to own this part of the economy and, as this store closure in Cleveland shows, we’re already seeing a decline in competition,” she said via email. “That’s bad news for artisans, because they will have fewer places to sell their goods and less ability to bargain for a fair price. It’s also bad for consumers and communities.”
…
