Today I am going to talk about social consciousness and its importance, so if you just want to see what the Secret Sale Item is scroll down to the bottom of this post and you will find it there.
Social consciousness is very important to me, much of my business model is based on it. "Fair trade" which is to me a very over used term and sometimes misleading. Yes I am guilty of it, I consider South American Secrets a "fair trade" company as we use typical "fair trade" practices with the communities we work with in South America. For those of you who don't already know "fair trade" is a market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries and promote sustainability. I will add it is also considered by many a social movement. Other than the term being used way to liberally I would say it has some very good proponents. I think what is most important is the social ramifications of trying to be "fair trade" and what it does for us as individuals, families, and communities as a whole. In that I mean it raises our social consciousness. When we walk into a store we look at brand X, Y, and Z and usually decide on the product that appear to be the best quality, have the best price and is most user friendly. There is nothing wrong with using this logic to make a decision on which product to purchase. Having said that this thinking does need to be refined. Thinking about how this product was made, who it was made by, and what
the environmental, and social impact is to the communities that are producing product X,Y, and Z should alter our choosing process.
Without going into a dialog that could take another hour to read I want to make my point. Fair trade is a good model to work with, but what we have to understand is when we are making a purchase we need to ask ourselves a few questions. When I choose to buy brand Z, I am saying first brand Z cares about me and the people who make it's products. Second the materials used in it are not impacting the environment in a negative way. Then after these two questions are answered I make the determination whether it is the best quality for the price and if it is user friendly. I would like us to think about how we could really make a positive difference as consumers if we refined our decision making process. For example I would like to take my wife out for lunch tomorrow to a restaurant in Sonoma called Maya. Before taking her to a restaurant I ask myself do the owners care about me (the community) and its own employees? After further investigation yes they do. They are very active in the community and after speaking to many of their staff members I can say Maya has taken a conscious effort to make their staff members safe and happy. Now you may say what a strange example! How does one research a restaurant? If you are like me, you go to the same place over and over again. I choose to go back to Maya because I have seen first hand its business model, its community awareness and tasted some great food.
Another example would be the bank you use. Does the bank you use take care of its employees and its community? Does the bank care about you? I can think of three banks that do not care about anything but making money. They are Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of American. IF we ask ourselves the question, do the banks care about me, the community, or their staff members? These banks obviously don't. So I say go to your local bank. The likelihood that they have a vested interest in you and our community is much much higher. My point is if we ask ourselves who cares about us, about the environment, and about the community that is where we should be putting our dollars. " Fair trade" or social conscious shopping is how we are going to change our learned bad habits. It is also the way we will keep businesses who care about us in business. Lets start by asking ourselves what establishments give us a sense of community? What companies are socially conscious about our children's education and future? IF it is all about the benjermens than lets not continue to invest in their business model. The socially conscious side of "fair trade" does not need to be practiced just by products made in developing countries, it can be applied in all our day to day purchases, products made locally or imported.
Secret Sale Item for today is Minka fair trade alpaca line. From 10 am Monday until 10 am Tuesday this line will be 50% off. to find the Minka alpaca line go to alpaca category on our home page.
I have found that as we get nearer to the close of the Christmas shopping season jewelery becomes a hotter item. It makes sense. Other than rings jewelery does not require a size, it is not going to shrink when it gets washed and it lasts much longer than a pare of socks. 
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Greetings!!. Today it is wet & rainy here in Sonoma . Our item today is from Peru where two gentlemen started a company a few years ago. Their products are amazing , they use 100% pre-shrunk organic cotton. Machine washable and dryer safe. Fred met them at one of the Peruvian fashion shows and he fell in love with their high quality products. So today's Secret Sale Item will be our Bobo Blouses. They come in White , Navy Blue , Choc. Brown and Dark Green. If it is to wet to go outside, just enjoy shopping on-line or feel free to call in an order . Happy shopping. Cheers, Shelby.
After yesterday's long post about "social consciousness" and "fair trade" and their role in our everyday life, I would like to do just a quick post. My wife should be going into labor with our second child any moment now, so Shelby and Maria will be more involved in making the blog-post for a few days. Maybe we will be able to convince Shelby to blog about some of her experiences in Ecuador. Shelby is a hip-city-girl who until a few years ago had never been out of the United States. South American Secrets changed that buy flying her to Ecuador to get her properly trained on where the product comes from and who benefits from the proceeds. For a city girl she learned real quick how people live in the Jungle. And I will leave it there for now.
Today I am going to talk about social consciousness and its importance, so if you just want to see what the Secret Sale Item is scroll down to the bottom of this post and you will find it there. 
the environmental, and social impact is to the communities that are producing product X,Y, and Z should alter our choosing process. 
This lovely blouse is made in Peru. It has been pre-shrunk. It comes in two colors White or Grey/green. It is 100% cotton.Machine wash and dry. Today's Secret Sale Item is our Juana Blouses.This item is 50% off from Sunday 10:00 am till Monday 10:00 am.
I have been blessed to work with some fantastic models who do a great job showing off South American Secrets various clothing lines. Like most retail companies the models used don't always represent the clients style or womanly shape. Therefor it could be assumed our clothes are made for only small women. This is not the case. Our Sizes usually go up to XXL. Today we will celebrate the more voluptuous woman, or the full figured woman and make our Secret Sale Item size large, extra large, and extra extra large. These sizes will be 50% off from 10 am Saturday until 10 am Sunday. Hope to see you on line or in the store.
If you walk into the physical store of South American Secrets you can see we have some good holiday sales going on right now. For example we have the Ecuadorian scarves on sale for $10 marked down from $14.95, but if you are lucky enough to know about the Secret Sale Item you will only pay $7.48. Yes we are marking the scarves half off today for our Secret Sale Item. From 10 am Friday until 10 am Saturday all Ecuadorian scarves will be 50% off. Hope to see you on line or in the store.
While most of our clients are women, we at South American Secrets try to have something for men too. As you can see on our website we always carry a good collection of Panama hats. We also have nice Peruvian cotton shirts and pants for men, but there is a special section that is all about cigars. We just got some great new Romeo and Julieta Bullys, some Ashton, and Monticristos in to name a few brands. So for you men and ladies who enjoy a good cigar hopefully you are reading this or someone is telling you about it because I can almost promise you there is no where else in the area that will be selling individual cigars for 50% off. From 10 am Thursday until 10 pm Friday all cigars will be 50% off. Yes cigars are our Secret Sale Item. The only cigars not discounted will be the gift box cigar samplers. So there you have it, hope you all get to take advantage of the sale.
Before I get into the Secret Sale Item I would like to say a few words about Sonoma's loss over the holiday weekend. In the next 10 days I will be a papa for the second time, I feel blessed to no end. As a parent my heart pains for the Maloney Family, John, Susan and thier two children. In the little time I knew this family it was clear they were good people. As a soon to be papa again I ask that we all think of the Maloney family and be greatful for what we have and to cherish the time we do have with our families. It is accedents like this that put what is really important in perspective. Bad Economy, morgage forclosers, loss of work, none of these things are irriversable. If you have children, or grandchildren, enjoy them. As parents you already should know children are our everything. For those that don't read Sonomanews.com thier is a donation fund for the Maloney's 19 year daughter. She is the only surviving sibling. The fund is to raise money for her college tuition.
