As General Manager Anya Firszt wrote in her May newsletter report, our Inclusive Trade program will be launching this month. The program is designed to highlight products from companies owned, controlled, and operated by individuals from underrepresented groups. A vendor will be considered an Inclusive Trade vendor if it is at least 51% owned, controlled, and operated by a person or persons who belong to one or more of the following groups:
- Women
- Black
- Indigenous, and/or Persons of Color
- LGBTQIA+ people
- Veterans
- Persons with disabilities
We believe that highlighting these vendors will help customers more easily identify products in line with their values, drive more business to these vendors, and help us make progress toward our diversity, equity, and inclusion goals for Willy Street Co-op’s vendors and customers.
Over the coming weeks, you’ll begin to see price tags with the Inclusive Trade icon:
(Since we’re adding Inclusive Trade icons to price tags, we’ll also be adding a purple square with an “L” in it for local products.) We expect to have all Inclusive Trade price tags posted by the end of May and all local item price tags posted by the end of June. You’ll also begin to see posters, signs, and flyers also begin to use an Inclusive Trade icon where applicable, such as for this sign:
We will also highlight specific Inclusive Trade vendors during certain recognition months, such as Pride Month, Black Business Month, etc. We will also be adding an online resource so that you can learn more about the group or groups to which a particular vendor belongs. For example, if you see the Inclusive Trade icon on a Giant Jones Brewing price tag, you will be able to go to our website to find out that they qualify for the Inclusive Trade program by being at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by both women and LGBTQIA+ persons.
You may notice some products that you may think qualify for our Inclusive Trade program that aren’t indicated as belonging to it. There are a few reasons this may happen:
- The vendor may not have completed the information we need to confirm their qualifications for the program. We will periodically update our list of Inclusive Trade vendors as we get new information.
- The vendor may not want to participate in our Inclusive Trade program.
- The vendor does not meet the qualifications—the company may have been acquired by a non-Inclusive Trade vendor, ownership of the company may be less diverse than what is publicly promoted about the company, etc.
