Yellow and white flowers spill over the decorated planters at the windows. A rack of shirts and shawls covers the outside logo, like ribbons wrapping a gift.
Deborah Cohen, 62, from Skokie, a volunteer since 2018, smiles. She explained what has drawn her back to the store over the years.
“I love what it stands for,” Cohen said. “I like almost everything here. If I had a lot of money, and you sent me in, I would have bought almost everything.”
She is surrounded by the shelves and stands that dot the terracotta floors, carrying recycled kalimbas, tea and coffee, knitted marigold butterflies and apparel, cards, housewares and beyond.
Cohen is one of 40 volunteers each month from all walks of life who staff this community-run shop. A few help with replanting the flower boxes or small fix-it jobs around the store, while around 20 volunteers staff the store floor for two to four-hour shifts a week.
The primary mission the shop stands for is Fair Trade. As a non-profit shop, Gather: Consciously Curated specializes in selling handcrafted, Fair Trade goods. This means the shop aims to advance economic justice, education, fair wages, quality of life and environmental sustainability, among other goals, through relationships with vendors.
Founded in 1997, Gather rebranded from Ten Thousand Villages Evanston in 2025 after the national Ten Thousand Villages nonprofit closed its physical stores. It is a verified member of the Fair Trade Federation, an association of enterprises that promote fair trade practices.
Notably, about 95 percent of the shop’s items are Fair Trade Federation products, and the shop also sources goods from social justice groups in the US. Ten Thousand Villages is their largest vendor, accounting for around 20 percent of their wares. Gather works with more than 50 fair trade vendors from over 20 countries.
Michaela Dix, 42, from Des Plaines, is the co-manager of Gather. The shop brings Evanston community members together, as it appeals to a large customer base, from Northwestern students to Senior Center residents to tourists, Dix said.
According to Dix, Gather has seen rising inventory costs amid recent tariffs on imported goods, but the shop continues to prioritize affordability.
Tariffs have had what Dix said is a “slow trickling impact” on the store. To keep prices stable, Gather’s vendors sourced goods early, and the store stocked up before tariffs took effect. Since then, some vendors and Gather itself has made minimal price adjustments, and Gather has tweaked product offerings to maintain a range of price points for customers.
“We try to keep our prices as low as possible for our customers,” Dix said.
One of the most popular items has been the Hacky Sack. As the game has become trendy in schools nationwide, Gather has seen an influx of footbag purchases. Even with a recent relationship with artisans in Guatemala, Gather has sold out of the Hacky Sack, Dix said.
Dix mentioned a yearly 5-day event in which the shop’s center is cleared out to make room for a selection of over 300 hand-knotted rugs and pillows from the group Bunyaad in Pakistan. She cited the beauty of the display and the community connections created.
When asked why she loves working at Gather, Dix said, “I love knowing we are part of keeping handcrafted goods alive in global communities, that artisans are paid fairly and able to take care of their families through fair trade, and we get to connect our local community here in Evanston to their beautiful work.”
“In a world of mass-produced stuff, artisan stuff and brick-and-mortar shops are important,” Dix said. “With handcrafted goods, you can see and appreciate the details and small differences that come with it being made by a person – the colors of the recycled sari fabric that goes into the basket design, the small differences in the metal sculptures, the detail in the basket weaving,” she said.
