Teresa Hendricks, right, owner of Lucia’s Imports and Lucia’s World Emporium, helps a customer with jewelry.
Born and raised in Lexington, Teresa Hendricks studied international business and economics at the University of Kentucky’s Patterson School of Diplomacy. She went to Guatemala for a summer to learn Spanish and ended up spending 18 years there, owning three retail stores.
In 2005 she came back to Lexington with a husband, Eduardo Del Pinal, and a daughter named Lucia, after her grandmother Lucy. Within a year, Hendricks had opened Lucia’s Imports, a wholesale business selling wares from Guatemalan artists and makers.
In 2007 she and Del Pinal also started a retail store, Lucia’s World Emporium. Both businesses operated out of a building on East High Street in the Woodland Triangle until 2014, when they moved to the Warehouse Block of North Ashland Avenue.
Lucia’s Imports and Lucia’s World Emporium are verified fair trade wholesale and retail companies. “As members of the Fair Trade Federation, we are committed to the principles of fair trade in all our business practices,” Hendricks said. “As wholesalers we work directly with artisans in Guatemala to create a market for their handicrafts.”
From her time living and working in Central America, Hendricks “developed relationships with many of the artisans we still work with today,” she said. “For our retail store we are committed to only sourcing products from other Fair Trade Federation members.”
Prior to COVID, she visited artisans in Guatemala twice a year, a tradition she hopes to get back to soon.
Fair trade organizations abide by the principles of fair trade, which include fostering opportunities with marginalized producers, creating long-term trading relationships, paying a fair price and doing so promptly, ensuring that no child is exploited for labor, and practicing nondiscrimination and gender equality; as well as respecting cultural identity, providing safe working conditions, cultivating environmental stewardship, and operating as a democratic and transparent organization.
“My personal interpretation is working directly with artisans, paying them a fair wage and creating opportunities for them to create a better life for themselves and their children,” Hendricks said.
In 2018, one of her wholesale customers in Michigan was retiring and wanted to know if anyone was interested in the store’s lease. Hendricks was, and she opened a second Lucia’s World Emporium retail store in Saugatuck, Michigan. Between both cities, she employs 10 people full-time, along with three part-time employees. In both retail stores, Hendricks buys products from other members of the Fair Trade Federation to sell, creating a marketplace for unique gifts, jewelry, clothing and home décor from around the world.
Her title? Manager and “chief goddess,” as she refers to herself.
Most of her wholesale business, about 98 percent, is conducted online, she said, with customers located across the country. Retail customers in Lexington are mostly local, with occasional out-of-towners. The opposite is true in Saugatuck, which is a tourist town.
The pandemic was a scary time in the beginning, Hendricks said. “We began by revamping our retail website and adding many more products, and using Facebook Live and newsletters [to advertise] curbside pickup,” she said. “Our local customers really showed us love and support.”
In the wholesale business, she asked the artisans who produced purses and coin bags if they could make masks. “The samples were beautiful, and a new business began in our wholesale business. We ended up making many unique designs that were hand-embroidered or used traditional Guatemalan designs. This provided relief to our artisans. At some points, they were working way more than they ever had.”
There were transportation problems when Guatemala was in lockdown, and then as new waves of COVID have begun to hit other developing nations. Hendricks’ suppliers in India and Nepal are having trouble getting product made or shipped. “Even when they get products shipped, I am hearing of delays at the port of entry in the U.S.,” she said. “We are committed to our vendors and artisans and have just had to learn to wait for some of our bestsellers.”
While her Lexington customers show patience, she says the local shopping movement represents just a small percentage of residents. “It would be wonderful if more people knew about us and supported the local businesses,” she said. “There is not a lot of foot traffic in the Warehouse Block, but we work together to keep the neighborhood as a great place to spend the day visiting the local shops and eateries.”
And, daily, she loves what she does, helping worldwide artisans and their families rise out of poverty. “I love creating collections of unique products for the world to enjoy.”