www.WedgeWorldWide.coop is Live Online!

by Elizabeth Archerd, Member Services Director

Gift-giving season is in full swing. TV news is full of stories about crowds at the malls and traffic jams in the parking lots. Seasonal songs have been playing 24/7 on a continuous loop since Halloween. Ah, holiday shopping. If you are like me, you delay gift shopping until the eleventh hour and then run down to the Wedge to choose from the amazing selection of lovely products the clever staff managed to, um, wedge in to every nook and cranny. Of course, that still requires facing traffic and parking, which gets even wilder than usual here at the holidays. Oh, what to do?

WedgeWorldWide.coop to the the rescue! We heard your cries: more choices, less fuss! Our fabulous general merchandise buyer Shannon Nixon, whose department grows by leaps and bounds, has developed an online store so you can shop and ship fairly traded, sustainable, ecologically and socially responsible non-food products without running the gauntlet for a parking space in the Wedge lot. Better still, purchases from our online store will count towards patronage refunds for Wedge members. When you open an account at WedgeWorldWide.coop, simply enter your member number if you have one. As a further allurement, we will give you a 10% discount on your first order if it is placed by December 31, 2006!

Shannon assembled a wonderful array of products for the site. WedgeWorldWide.coop gets you access to more clothing, jewelry and accessories, CDs and books, and home and garden items like bamboo trays, teapots, comforters and shower filters. Every item available from our online store meets one or more of the criteria Shannon has set for general merchandise products carried at the Wedge itself. A set of icons in product descriptions helps you easily determine which of your values the product meets, such as Fair Trade, organic, ecofriendly, locally-made and more. Many product descriptions contain information on the artisan or company who crafted the product. For example, several products by Maggies Apparel link to a 15-minute movie called "Ants That Moved Mountains," about the Nicaraguan women who started the cooperative clothing factory where all Maggies items are sewn. You can even listen to the windchimes before purchasing one!

Shopping for a gift? The Gift Ideas section organizes products on the site by price range, for your convenience. Gifts shipped directly to friends and relatives will be sent with ecofriendly gift-wrapping of recycled cardboard boxes and partly-recycled wrapping tissue tied with naturally-colored raffia (a plant fiber) twine, per your request.

If there is a product you'd like to be able to buy from WedgeWorldWide.coop, Shannon is especially eager to get the word out to Wedge members about the section of the site that takes your requests for products.

Most orders will ship within 1-2 days of ordering. Be sure to place your order at least eight (8) days before you want the item to arrive at its destination out of state, or at least five (5) days for orders shipped to Minnesota addresses.

So let's review: no parking or crowding, no overplayed music in the background, wrapping and shipping are done for you, 10% off your first order and your purchases count towards your patronage refund. What's not to love?