Interesting someone mentioned the UK Kitkat. Local 7-11s sell Kitkats from the UK. They even stick little union jack stickers on them.
Are British consumers more likely to prefer or even demand fair-trade products? Or is this just a coincidence?[/quote]
Yeah, it’s really been something I’ve noticed since I got back to the UK. Big labels on everything from bananas, to coffee, to chocolate. I’m not stupid enough to think it’s because the food corporations have suddenly started caaaaring, though. Britain is different fom in the nineties. The recession and bad immigration policies trashed job security for all. People aren’t making huge purchases, they are staying home and indulging in expensive chocolate, etc, rather than meals out, holidays and so on. There’s also an awareness of environmentalism, food miles, etc. We have that stupid bag law that Taiwan implemented, now.
hh, I do see your point. I realise how lucky I am to be able to make these choices, and the pure cosmic chance that led me to have free healthcare and almost free education up to the age of 23. It would not be right and fair for me to then say 
you, everything I had I worked for, and some poor kid should get a few pennies less so I pay 130Nt for a luxury product I don’t really need, rather than 150NT. (Although I’m not feeling the cosmic abundance this morning. My boiler packed up again.). We need both. No, it won’t end poverty for all, but it will help a few. Better than nothing?
Fair trade is not always more expensive. Cheap Cadbury’s chocolate is no more expensive than M & Ms or any of the other cheap confectionary. The same with coffee. Fruit such as bananas is more expensive. But I think it’s preposterous to have tropical fruit flown across the world (I’m talking as someone in Britain, here, where we have much more variety and quality of food than most countries, but not much of it grows here) and for a bunch of farmers to breathe in chemicals everyday, and not have a decent standard of living. We should all do what we can, if we are in the position to do so.
I love chocolate. I’ve actually worked at both Cadbury’s and Nestle factories (summer university jobs). Cadbury’s has an interesting history - the company was started by a socially progressive Quaker family and the company used to treat its workers really well.
I actually prefer non-Fair Trade chocolate - somehow tastes better with the possibility that the peasant farmers and factory hands were spanked.
Just got sold to Kraft, though. End of an era!
The Quakers were the original fair traders, having founded many famous and prosperous countries that treated their workers well. I think Fair Trade running shoes would be a good idea…I get real angry at seeing over priced brand trainers made for 5 bucks in China by Taiwanese OEM manufacturers. But I don’t buy brand name shoes and get the same shoes in a different name for 1/3 price here usually.
And I was just going to say there goes another famous British company (Cadburys to Krafts), sold out the brand, closing the UK plants, killing the internal economy one by one for quick money…the list of famous Brit companies that have bought it is very long and extensive. The worlds best brands sold for a song.
Fair trade…it’s a good idea in general and I agree with its principles as a relatively rich person compared to most of the world’s citizens.
You can buy fair trade / eco tennis shoe sort of things, but i haven’t seen performance running shoes.
It bugs me, paying for running shoes, when most of the cost is spent on a picture of some girl jogging and for some genius to think up stuff like ‘Just Do It’. We also get sold the idea that we ‘need’ them, or we will do untold damage to our knees, etc. Rocky trained in Converse. Maybe we should all stop being so precious about ourselves? 