Pico’s Worldwide Is Online!
We are very excited to finally be online! It has been a long journey fraught with much indecision. What we really love about this business is sharing our time, ourselves, and our space with the many wonderful people that come through our doors; being inspired by our shared vision and stimulated by the exchange of thoughts, ideas, and experiences. Having no more interaction than a computer click seemed inconceivable to us. What about community, dialogue, and relationship? At the end of the day, it is the reflection of these exchanges that leave us energized and motivated.
And then we pondered the loss of tangibility; touching, feeling, and sensing the beautiful works from artisans around the world. It is deeply rewarding to witness a customer moved and wowed by the ingenuity, creativity, and talent involved in the creation of a finished product. It isn’t so much about shopping; rather it is this wondrous three-dimensional experience that has a way of bringing us together, from all parts of the world, and remembering our connections – to one another, and our planet. How could we ever duplicate this on a website?
But, our customers, so many from out of town, kept asking for a way to continue their support of fair trade and green practices and, equally poignant, to continue to support us in our mission to help turn our economy into a green, equitable, and sustainable one! So we realized the time had come to shift our perceptions. The online community is a part of life and we needed to join it in a creative way!
Thus, we have tried to transfer our philosophy (and our personalities) to the website: it’s not just about shopping. We have several pages of up-to-date and informative information on fair trade, eco-friendly practices, and our artisans. You may not be able to touch and feel our products but we aim to give you the best sense of them we can in this format. And while we can’t interact face-to-face, we hope this blog can keep the relationships interactive and ongoing. We still encourage you to ask all the same questions and we will answer them! We still look forward to having you share your vision with us. Picosworldwide.com is a work in progress: we would like to know what you want to see and how we can work together to create a strong community together online.
While the economy experiences upheaval, it is still imperative to remember how fortunate we are and not to forget that so many individuals live in near poverty-they cannot lose our support without horrific and dire consequences. We hope you will find a way to allocate dollars to fair trade purchases that can literally mean the difference between life and death for families around the world.
