A nonprofit Boise store promotes fair trade. Now it’s closing, with even fixtures on sale

Every item at Dunia Marketplace has a story.

Baskets handwoven in South Africa were made of leftover telephone wire, explains JamieLou Delavan, the market’s director.

A selection of purses and crossbody bags were made of recycled rubber tires and stitched by a group of paraplegic patients under rehabilitation at a hospital in Nepal. The bags provide a source of income for their makers and help prevent tires from being burned or dumped, a tag on the items said.

Green vases and candleholders costing $29.99 apiece were made by artisans at a glass-blowing business in the West Bank. A set of wooden serving spoons were carved by members of a tribe in Kenya. Canvas bags, $35, were sewn by refugees in Idaho.

Dunia Marketplace is perhaps the only place in Boise where one could peruse such an array of wares from around the world in a single shop. But the small, nonprofit fair trade store is closing down its storefront in West Downtown by the end of May.

The shop was founded in 1995 by members Hyde Park Mennonite Fellowship. In addition to jewelry and other crafts, it sells coffee, tea, spices, chocolate and olive oil.

For over two decades, the shop operated in an old green house in Hyde Park, a historic district in Boise’s North End neighborhood. It was forced to move out in March 2023 when rent for the space tripled, Delavan said.

After months of searching for a new location, the store reopened at 1718 W. Main St. in August. The space is next to Black Eagle Tattoo and a string of other small shops just past the intersection with the Cabana Inn at the corner.

Business has stalled since the move.

“It’s very, very different from Hyde Park, but we love this space. We love all the light,” Delavan said, gesturing toward the glass door and windows. She noted the bus stop out front and the proximity to the store’s old customer base a few blocks north. “But we’re just not making ends meet. More money is going out than is coming in.”

The store will close Sunday, May 26. Many of its items, sourced from over 80 countries, will remain available on Dunia Marketplace’s website. Delavan also plans to do pop-ups and special events.

She said she’ll miss the chance encounters with people, often refugees, who stroll in after the reading the store’s name. Dunia, also spelled dunya, originates from the Arabic language and means “world” or “earth.”

Delavan lived in Zimbabwe as a child and moved to Boise in 1994. She said the shop has allowed her to connect with a number of people from other cultures.

“The woman who just came in, she said, ‘Dunia — I had to come in because of the name,’” Delavan told the Idaho Statesman. “We’ve had this happen several times. Just recently, there was a gentleman waiting at the bus stop and he came in and said, ‘I saw Dunia. Do you know what this means in Swahili?’”

Boise resident Jan Hanson stopped into the store with her mother Thursday afternoon to look for a wedding or bridal shower gift for her future daughter-in-law. She ended up buying a soapstone sculpture resembling a loose knot and a proofing basket for sourdough bread, which her daughter-in-law likes to bake, she said.

Hanson said she spent about 15 years in Papua New Guinea as a missionary. There, she said many women would make bags by “hand knotting,” rather than by knitting or crocheting.

“I don’t know how to explain it, but everyone did it,” Hanson said. “They walked down the streets chatting and working on the bags.”

She said she’d bring some of the bags home to the U.S., sell them and bring the money back to the village for fair trade. She left the country nearly a decade ago.

Hanson said she enjoys coming into Dunia Marketplace to browse and learn more about where the handicrafts came from.

“I want to support the shop but I also want to support the people who made these products,” Hanson said. “I think fair trade is very important.”

Hand towels on display Thursday for $12.99 each were made in India from reclaimed saris, a brightly-colored traditional garment.

And a small notebook with a purple cover branded Mr. Ellie Pooh was made in Sri Lanka with a mixture of sanitized elephant dung and post-consumer paper.

“The farmers — their farmland would get trampled by the elephants,” Delavan said. “They were always trying to find a way to keep the elephants away from the crops, until they came up with this idea to take recycled paper and elephant dung and make journals. It helps offset the loss of income from the elephants.”

All regular priced items in the store, except for food, are now 20% off. Even the fixtures are for sale.

Delavan said the store has two employees and one regular volunteer. She’s sad to see the storefront go but hasn’t ruling out the possibility of another physical location in the future.

“We haven’t given up,” she said. “Maybe we will find a partner and set-up a kiosk in an existing space or have regular monthly pop-ups. In some ways we are going back to our fair-trade roots, bringing cultural handicrafts to where people already gather.”

Boise ‘treasure hunt’ furniture shop to close after 75 years. Liquidation sale begins