In The Beginning; My Dunitz & Company Story Part#1

I started Dunitz & Company a long time ago. Initially I dreamed of opening a retail store and working with artisans all around the world. After some due diligence, I decided building a wholesale business made more sense for me. That was in 1988 when I was still working at MGM/UA, then located in Culver City, CA. I had a promising career in the entertainment business, but I just wasn’t that happy. I always joke I’d be a lot richer (money-wise) today if I’d stuck to that course. In 1985, I left a position I had at Warner Home Video for a year of travel. I was restless then too. Most of my time was spent in Asia and I’m certain that that is where the initial notion of exploring and offering world crafts came from.

It’s a bit of a blur when I think about the early days of Dunitz & Company. I was young and stupid and did a lot of shooting from the hip. While still working at my corporate gig, I decided to take a vacation to Guatemala. I didn’t know if it was time to actively seek a new “job” or take a leap and start my own business.  Assuming I would throw my hat in the ring and start a business, Guatemala was a country a lot closer to me than any of those I’d visited and really enjoyed in Asia. It meant spending a lot less hours on a plane. The time I could steal away for traveling was limited by my allotted vacation. And I knew I’d find lots of beautifully made crafts in the “Land of Eternal Spring.” I assumed Guatemala would be an easier place to start a business. What I didn’t realize, and later ignored was that Guatemala was in the midst of Civil War and since the early 60’s more than 200,000 people were either killed or forcibly taken never to be heard from again. The peace accords weren’t actually signed until 1996. It was rough times in Guatemala and there weren’t a lot of travelers there. Those of us that were there, traveled by public chicken bus. It would be years before travelers could easily move about Guatemala by tourist vans. In 1988 it was me and my Lonely Planet guidebook being courageous.

Market Day in Antigua

That first trip to Guatemala I was mostly a tourist. I checked out the markets and galleries in Guatemala City. I strolled the cobbled streets of Antigua and was in total awe of the colonial architecture.  And yes, I took one of those chicken buses to Chichicastenango to explore their big Thursday market and to Panajachel so I could visit the towns around Lake Atitlan. Although I was playing tourist, my primary motivation for visiting Guatemala was to explore arts and crafts and see if it was a country that offered potential for business.

(I’ve changed many names, to protect the people I write about.)

It felt a bit scary on that first trip to Guatemala. I didn’t have a clue of where I should go, what I should see and how I should get around.  Initially I booked myself a room in a small worn down hotel in a tough part of town, Zone 1 of Guatemala City. Picture a charming old building with lots of dark stained wood paneling with peeling wallpaper.  I remember it was a block from Café Leon where I could snag some good coffee and later mail 1lb bags home to friends and family. It was also an easy walk to Bar Europa.

Nancy & Ray, my driver

Bar Europa in Zone 1 was the place ex-pats and tough guys hung out. I had heard if I wanted to make useful connections, I should venture out to this place. I did. It was smoky and there was lots of drinking. I don’t smoke and I’m not much of a drinker. I was definitely out of my element. I did however meet some interesting people. One person I met was Ray Morales, a Texan who had been living in Guatemala for many years and was married to a Guatemalan woman who worked at the US Consulate office. There is no question that he was once a mercenary who had turned a page. At the time I met him and when he could, he hired himself out as a guide and driver. Since traveling around Guatemala was near impossible, I knew our acquaintance could be advantageous if and when I returned to Guatemala.  He charged a daily rate, and on top of that, I would have to pay gas, his hotel and food.

On one of my first evenings in Guatemala, I met a man, Carlos Duarte, who was the age my father would have been. My mother actually obtained his contact information for me when she knew I was traipsing off to Guatemala.  He was a financially successful businessman, living in Guatemala City.  His cousin was the husband of one of the women in my mom’s card group. Now widowed, that friend of my mom’s thought meeting Carlos might be advantageous for me. Carlos picked me up and brought me to his home where I met his wife and we had dinner. Evidently his kids were at school in the US. Their home was in a posh neighborhood and it was behind barbed wire.  He operated sewing shops where he manufactured clothing for distributors and retailers abroad. I learned that his business partner had been murdered for most likely political reasons, the details I never ascertained. I think Carlos was impressed with my moxie and he offered me a job repping his business in the USA. The truth is, if I wasn’t going to continue on the corporate route back in the States, I knew I would start my own business working with artisans. After dinner Carlos dropped me off at my hotel. I knew if I ever got into trouble in Guatemala I could look him up again. Thankfully, I never had to do that.

It was suggested by the people I met in Guate (Guatemala City) that Panajachel would be the best place to make artisan connections. It was one of the few places artisans could travel and meet tourists, to sell their goods. On most days there were many Mayan men and women lined up on the street with their baskets of weavings and carvings. It was obvious to me that there was a plethora of opportunity in this country where so many seemed to have little opportunity.

Learning about Weaving

El Chisme, which no longer exists, was the place for breakfast and hob knobbing amongst foreigners who lived in Panajachel or those living in neighboring lake towns. It was owned by an American couple that had shuttered the place while they temporarily  moved back to the States, due to the instability of Guatemala. Apparently many foreigners who had been living in Guatemala left for their safety in the early 80’s and were now gradually returning. The ex-pat community was quite varied. There were those that chose to live in Guatemala because it was beautiful and inexpensive. I met retired teachers and a doctor that had lost his license to practice (in the States.)  And there were the x- Rajneesh followers. Lots of them. There was no shortage of people I met at El Chisme with colorful stories. And because many of them were interested in my story, I was able to meet many of the people that helped change my life. And with changing my life, it allowed me to change the lives of many others.

But that is for Part#2. After all, I had to return to Los Angeles and my job at MGM/UA and marinate on all I’d learned on that first exploratory trip to Guatemala. Would I look for a new job? Would I pursue a business of my own? (I guess you know the answer to that question.) Would I spend more time in Guatemala before taking my next steps? Stay tuned. I promise to write another segment soon.- ND

My Choices for this Fair Trade Holiday Season - Edibles & Consumables

I love receiving gifts. After living so many years (oy!) I have so much stuff.  What does that mean? My favorite gifts are edibles and consumables. Here are some fantastic gifts for Holiday 2023 that are just that. My choices support fair trade and many of my Fair Trade Federation colleagues.

Dean's Beans for Coffee: My choice of course comes from Guatemala where Dunitz & Company has worked with artisans since 1989.  Not only do I adore Guatemalan coffee, my choice is always medium roast. Enjoy a good cup of coffee and know workers were treated fairly. 1lb for $14.89

Ten Thousand Villages Rose Soap: A repeat performance on this one! I bought several types of TTV soaps from Global Gifts Fair Trade a couple of years ago for gifts for Mr. Postman, Mr. DHL, Mr. Fedex and a bunch of other friends. I have a few friends still talking about the Rose Soap and how much they loved the smell. How could I not put this on the list for 2023? One Bar, $5.99. 

 

African Bronze Honey: I eat a lot of honey. I love honey. Typically I buy local at the Hollywood Farmer's Market on Sundays.  I've been eying my Fair Trade Federation colleague's honey for a long time. Maybe you want to treat me to a jar? A 12.35oz jar of their Organic Wild Honeydew Forest Honey is $15.50 - it might be gone in one week!

Quinoa Cookies: I love cookies. I love baking cookies. And I love eating cookies. When I learned that my FTF Colleague, Andean Dreams offers cookies, you know this had to go on my holiday list. I'm not vegan or gluten intolerant, but their cookies are perfect for those that are. Wanna surprise me with their Quinoa Cookies Variety Pack? I'm sure you have friends that would love these. $18.99

Rumi Olive Oil: From Canaan Palestine Fair Trade. This small business works with farmer to bring us fair trade oil and other yummy edibles that I know you will enjoy eating. Whether you like to cook or prefer do drench your bread in tasty olive oil, this might be the perfect gift for you. Or yes, give it to the cook in your life. It's on my list. A 500ml bottle is $35.00 

Chocolate Bar Collection: Equal Exchange is known for their chocolate. In my book, the darker the better. They're offering this assortment this season which would definitely please me. That means it will please a lot of your friends and family members who have a sweet tooth. Since I'm nuts about coconut, I can't wait to dig my chops into the Coconut Milk variety. That's if someone sends me some! $30.00

Cardamon & Clove Candle: Our FTF retail partner and colleague, Humankind offers an amazing collection of candles that come from Bright Endeavors, a Chicago based social enterprise that trains and helps young mothers facing economic hardship in the inner-city. These women make wonderful scented and soy candles. My choice is the Cardamon & Clove. Burning at home, the exotic smells remind me of my travels to Asia. A 4oz candle will last 20 hours and is only $15.00

 

Umzimbubu Chili Ginger Pepper: ships from Latitudes Fair Trade and is made by Serv. I confess, this one is probably not perfect for me, and better suited for the cooks in your circles. I used be cook a lot and was quite good at it. In recent years I really haven't spent much time with a stove top or over.  When I look at the collection of spices Latitudes offers, it certainly inspires me to bring out the pots and pans.  One bottle of spices is only $7.75 which means a few together would make an amazing presentation.

There you have it! If these gift suggestions work for me, you know they work for lots of other. When you support fair trade you really are making a positive difference in the lives of producers and supporters. Dunitz & Company (that's me) certainly knows that first hand. Happy Holidays! -ND

Nancy Draws. Nancy Shows off Fair Trade Jewelry.

I keep drawing. It's been so fun for me to create portraits and then add Dunitz fair trade jewelry to the mix. The truth is, these drawings have provided many posts for our Instagram. And Facebook too. It's fun for me to see all these images in one place. So, here we go. This blog post share some new ones from the last several months, in no particular order :). See something you have to have for your own ears or wrist? Or a style you want to offer your customers in your store?  I'm here to help. -ND

I often draw models from magazine ads

Men often wear our small stud earrings

Self Portrait. And I don't have pierced ears.

It seems people like portraits in sunglasses!

It's been fun drawing people wearing hats

I really like this drawing!

I can't get enough of this smile

Did I capture that stretch?

Minister & Fair Trader: Meet and Learn From Amy Kay Pavlovich

Amy Kay Pavlovich

I've known Amy Kay Pavlovich, the owner of Connected of Lindsborg,KS., for quite some time. I knew she was a minister. I knew she was passionate about fair trade and I knew she successfully sells Dunitz & Company fair trade jewelry. And recently I learned that she is really fun to engage with on her business Facebook LIVES! I thought if she was willing, and she was, we could all learn something from her. 

  

 

 

 

NANCY: I had to look it up. We first met in 2010 at the Chicago Gift Show at the Chicago Merchandise Mart. I believe Connected was your brand new retail store baby at the time. And now you've been at it for much more than a decade!

Connected Store Front

AMY KAY:  I'm glad you knew that because I switched POS systems and wouldn't have been able to see when I first started ordering from you. As you know, I had a fair trade store in Illinois (Just Good Trade) before moving to Kansas in June of 2013. I'm sure your jewelry was sold there as well as at Connected.

 

 

 

NANCY:  Yes, you're right. It was. So let's get to it. Let the interview begin. I already know about your shop and a bit about you. I'm thinking most people reading this blog interview do not. Can you tell me a bit about your background and how that lead to you opening a fair trade retail store?  Was there a specific event that encouraged you to get into retail?

Press in Local Magazine!

AMY KAY: Sure thing! I've been a minister since 1999 and the first 11 years served large churches where I was essentially a program staff person. I worked with a wonderful church in Columbia, MO, where over time, I led a number of Learning and Serving trips each year.  Around 2007 a college group and I were on our way home from a trip where we met some coffee farmers in Mexico. After that experience I realized it wasn't enough to "just pray for people", we had to do more. After working it all out with the full church leadership, we started a Fair Trade store within the life of the church. Since then, I've been a college chaplain and am now a solo minister. I've also always had Fair Trade stores along with my call.

 

 

NANCY:  After all these years working in fair trade is there something you feel particularly good about? An accomplishment? A life you changed? I'd love to hear a story or two.

Happy Customers

AMY KAY:  What a lovely question! I love traveling to meet artisans and farmers because they are why I choose to spend my time in retail. I also enjoy my interactions with my customers in my store. I've spoken to lots of groups and get to slide into conversations about supply chains and economic justice often. A few times professional women have admitted that they had never thought about who made the products they buy. I definitely saw an epiphany in their faces. I hope after our conversations their lives were changed to more mindful consumption. A tiny bit of change made by people will hopefully result in real change for producers.

NANCY: And is there some aspect of operating a fair trade store that you enjoy the most? 

Dunitz Artisans

AMY KAY: I love the products themselves, learning about the people who made or grew the goods and chatting about them with the people that come into the store.  Every day is colorful and lovely. It's a nice balance with servicing the church too. I can do creative things with my hands in the store and I mostly use my mind as I serve the church.  My vocation, my call, is to serve God's people and I'm grateful to be able to do it in different ways through both of my careers.

 

 

 

NANCY: I'm completely impressed with how you consistently and often use the Facebook LIVE vehicle. How did you get into that? Do you have certain things you like to discuss or share with your audience?

Faces of Amy Kay

AMY KAY: Oh gosh, Thank you, Nancy. My shop in Lindsborg is situated between creative business people who I respect so much. When the pandemic came along, they started doing Facebook LIVEs. I did not. Even though my store was closed, all my time was being consumed with figuring out how to be present with the congregation I serve and how in the world we would worship in a new way. (note: Remember Amy Kay juggles two careers.) It took a few months to figure it out over a busy season of worship in the church. (Lent/Holy Week/Easter)  By the time I got through all of that,my neighbor and friend encouraged me to try selling our fair trade jewelry through LIVE shows. I balked at first, but then realized that everything I had learned for streaming worship also applied to Facebook LIVE. It was not necessarily comfortable to do it, but I had ample practice from having streamed worship.  Over time I've gotten more comfortable with the format and have continued with the LIVEs even though we are open and no longer on lock down.

Initially my LIVES took place on Thursday evenings. During one part of the the covid experience, we had been open and needed to close again because of sickness. Instead of hosting only one "Happy Hour with Fair Trade" on Thursday nights at 8pm, I started showing things Monday through Wednesday as well. After we were able to reopen, I was ready to transition back to having only one show a week. The people who watched the most said that my 8pm LIVEs helped them get through their crazy covid-ness and asked me to continue. Turns out they were mostly single woman and new moms who reached out and I didn't have the heart to discontinue the shows.

From a Facebook LIVE

Instead of showing fair trade products on Monday through Wednesday, I shifted to sharing about something I had found meaningful during the day. It could have been something I had read or listened to on radio. Without looking back to see how long I've been doing this, I'd guess it's been well over a year I've shared what I now call "Musings". They truly are just things that I've been pondering from other people's wisdom. It takes me a few minutes to decide what to share, I pop on to the LIVE and the whole thing usually takes less than 10 minutes. Thursdays takes me an hour or so to prepare, 30-40 minutes live and a half hour to clean up and settle back down. People don't buy much during "Happy Hour" now because we are mobile again. But, I sell more overall because folks come into the store to pick up what they've seen. Two of my best customers only buy from what they've seen during LIVEs and say that they prefer it because they aren't overwhelmed while waking through the store. It's been a very interesting experience.

NANCY: Has doing Facebook LIVE helped increase your page followers? I'm blown away that you have over 3000 followers on Facebook. Is there a trick to building such a wonderful audience?

AMY KAY: No, my LIVEs aren't helpful in building an audience. (Don't you just love AK's frankness?) What's best in that area is what I haven't been doing, sharing pictures with short quippish wording and paying for the post to be shown to people in our area.

I'm about the least savvy business person you could find. My answer here is probably going to sound ridiculous. I think people follow the store because I'm pretty darned real. I've been told my candidness is refreshing. (It is.) I'm certainly not everyone's cup of tea! But those who line my realness come around. Also, I've lived in a few other places since Facebook was developed and some friends from those places continue to follow me as I've moved.

NANCY: Many of us are tech dinosaurs. I'd like to know how you actually do those LIVE chats? Are you using a phone or PC? Do you just press a video button on Facebook and start talking? Do you use a tripod? I'd sure like to know what you do. Maybe I'd give it a go.

AMY KAY: You should give it a go, Nancy! It's so EASY!!!

When I'm the most lazy, I just hold my phone. It always looks better when I set it in a little tripod I keep handy, but if my boys are home with me, I don't take the 60 seconds needed to grab the tripod.

For my Happy Hours, I use a free program that I also currently use for my streaming worship. I like to put the price of products and country of origin on the side of the screen so I don't get confused and say the wrong thing or just get unnerved. It makes everything go more smoothly to put in the hour of work to set up that system. It is called OBS Studio and it is also easy to use.  There are lots of  YouTube tutorials on the program. I watched a few and know enough to make it work each week. You'd be great with either system! (Thanks for the vote of confidence.)

NANCY: You've been selling Dunitz & Company fair trade in your store for a long time. I know you like our large teardrop earrings I've seen you wear in your Facebook LIVEs. Is there another favorite  you wear or sell in your store? You know I had to ask. 

Best Selling Beaded Dots

AMY KAY: Oh I love lots of your beautiful jewelry. Currently your beaded dots are my best seller! People who live in the middle of Kansas and those traveling through like your Frida Teardrops. You know those earrings of yours made with denim and all those fun little beads!

 

 

 

 

NANCY: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Frida Teardrop Earrings

AMY KAY:  Every time I sell one of your beautiful pieces I think of you, Nancy. I'm sorry that I'm a rotten communicator and don't tell you of my appreciation.Thank you for the gorgeous designs, colors and quality you facilitate with your artisan partners.

Lastly, I'd love for people to understand how easy it is to be a fair trade retailer. As I mentioned earlier, I am not a business person. I, quite honestly, suck at business. If I can open a store and keep it open, anyone can! If anyone reading this has a call to have a fair trade store or to incorporate fair trade into a shop of another nature, I'm a huge cheerleader for their interest. The fair trade community is a supportive, affirming, nurturing, sometimes salty, and always a fun group of people with whom to be in cahoots. Cheers! 

--end of interview--

A Pefect Pin

For all her self-deprecating, I think Amy Kay definitely has it going on. You've got to love her more after reading this interview. She clearly is doing a fantastic job wearing multiple hats at the same time. Her customers are engaged at her fair trade store, Connected and on her Facebook Page. And of course, I'm thrilled she is selling Dunitz & Company's jewelry. After reading her words of wisdom, are you ready to take on a Facebook LIVE? I think I might be. -ND