Buying Something you Truly Value

(as told in the March 19, 2006 issue of NY Times Magazine from “Consumed” by Rob Walker)

A few years ago, Dwayne Ball went to buy a gift for a friend who had cancer; Ball was looking for something meaningful. He chose a teapot from…Ten Thousand Villages T. It was nice-looking and could be used for tea meant to relieve the effects of chemotherapy. Also, like everything else for sale at the store, it was made by an artisan in the third world who (as the store’s clerks and signage informed him) would be fairly compensated. “So there were multiple motivations,” Ball says. Aside from aesthetics and functionality, it had ‘spiritual value.'”