There are dorm rooms on campus bigger than Shop the Whole World, but few stores can cram quite as many things from quite as many places into such a small space. Strings of bells, hand-woven bedspreads, Tibetan prayer flags, figures of Buddha, Ganesh and Shiva and Krishna, finger puppets, sandlewood incense sticks, moccasin-bottom knee-high woven slippers - the walls and countertops of this tiny store spill over with a hodgepodge of goods. By the register is a plastic container with metallic rings claiming to draw stress from your body, with the caveat that it "may break when it has absorbed its capacity." The wrap skirts on display outside come in one size: "free." Lined along on the floor are baskets of belts and rainbow hacky sacks, and wind chimes dangle from the ceiling.
As small as the fair trade store is, it stretches to every corner of the globe. According to store clerk Analiese De Saw, Shop the Whole World first opened in Belize in the 1980s as The Salty Dog. The storeowner, Jill Carpe, then spent some time in Nepal at a women's co-op where villagers make and sell crafts. The Princeton store opened in the early 1990s, and most of the merchandise is imported internationally from women's co-ops. Local artists have their niche as well, selling stationary and earrings.
It seems impossible to get lost in a place the size of a closet, but the stacks of trinkets mixed with the prickle of incense and the plucking strings of music from unfamiliar places can be dizzying. Half the fun is in simply finding something you weren't looking for in the first place.
To Get There: From Nassau Hall, walk straight down Witherspoon St., turn right on Spring St., store is on left. (5 minutes)
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