Weltladen Koln

Why it matters: the Weltladen Koln is one of the city’s fair-trade pioneers – run for nearly five decades by the nonprofit Forum Eine Welt e.V., and for the last 25 years from a central Innenstadt shopfront just off Neumarkt. More than 50 volunteers keep it going, and every product is chosen against the WFTO fair-trade principles, buying direct from cooperatives so the money reaches producers in the global South. It is a proper Fachgeschaft, not a gift-shop corner: single-origin coffee and chocolate, teas, spices, and handmade crafts and textiles. Tip: it is a great spot for genuinely useful souvenirs; the coffee from partner cooperatives and the South African Sonnenglas solar lanterns travel well.