ANNAPOLIS — When Shannon Riesenfeld returned home from a work trip to Rwanda nearly 10 years ago her suitcase was packed with 50 toiletry bags crafted by local women.
Riesenfeld had been working a sales job for a fair trade company out of Austin, Texas and traveled to Africa to meet artisans and oversee product development. She saw the colorful, patterned bags a group of seamstresses had made, sparking the idea to bring the items back and sell them.
A year later in 2016, she launched her company, Mango & Main.
“If you meet people that are making something beautiful and you’re like, ‘Oh people at home will totally buy this, like yeah, I’ll take 50 of them,’” Riesenfeld, 45, recalled. “It just sort of snowballed.”
Mango & Main is a fair trade shop in downtown Annapolis, selling products that are sustainably and ethically sourced. The store sells handmade goods from artisans in 24 countries. It opened its bright coral painted Maryland Avenue storefront in 2019 and has since become a cornerstone along the street, just a few steps from the State House, customers said.
Del. Dylan Behler, D-Anne Arundel, said the store is an asset to Maryland Avenue and is the “best spot” in Annapolis to find good gifts. Behler, a regular customer, said he’s a fan of the store’s holiday ornaments.
His most recent favorite item is an Annapolis pennant he bought for the wall in his office.
“There’s a wide array of really cool selection,” Behler said.
During the early days of Mango & Main, boxes would arrive on Riesenfeld’s doorstep and her dining room table would be covered with jewelry and bags.
Riesenfeld, an Arnold resident, would set up tables at different arts festivals and vendor events. She hadn’t planned to open a store, but when space became available on Maryland Avenue she decided to give it a shot.
“I’ve always loved this street and this shop is just really special,” Riesenfeld said.
The boutique sells everything from polka dotted sunglasses and raw honey to clothing and scented candles. Its shelves are lined with items with different patterns, textures and bold colors. Signs throughout the store explain some of the products and the people behind their creation.
As a fair trade store, Riesenfeld said its goal is to help people. She said the way the business model works is that Mango & Main pays the artisans for their products upfront, so they don’t have to worry about making money if items don’t sell.
“We’re not trying to find the cheapest product or have the biggest profit margin,” Riesenfeld said. “It’s all about paying them exactly the price that they want, and a price that helps them to build their own business and get out of the cycle of poverty.”
Artisans are usually part of cooperatives, where groups of women get together to create and sell their products, Riesenfeld said.
She said being able to make money through their art is game changing for many of the women.
“A lot of women in Rwanda and other countries, they’ll have to resort to just terrible things in order to pay just to feed their children,” Riesenfeld said. “So for a woman to be able to have a sewing machine and make bags in her home … then to sell it to someone in the U.S., it’s a huge opportunity.”
Leah Stauffer, an Annapolis resident, is a frequent shopper at the store. She said it feels good to purchase items from Mango & Main because she knows that she’s helping people when she shops.
Her favorite products are the bold earrings and leather bags, which are made by artisans in Ethiopia.
“It’s pretty amazing to think that just by buying a product, you’re impacting women, children and people’s ability to have a job in all of these different places,” Stauffer said.
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