Our Place

@suzywillow thank you!

@scouech on their FAQ about the chinese workers it's a bit vague " Our partners are paid fair wages with ethical work life balance and breaks" I would also appreciate more details of these "partnerships" What does "ethical work life balance" mean in china?! e.g. Can you share photos of the crafts people on their breaks?

@scouech Hey Romain! All great questions. Lots to unpack, so here we go! Our ceramics factory is based in Guangdong, China. They have 410 workers, and the factory minimum wage is RMB9.48/hour, compared with the legal minimum wage at RMB8.1/hr. (One of the reasons we chose to work with this factory was specifically because they chose to pay above minimum wage when so many others don't.) Our ceramics are all finished with a hand-applied layer of paint, so no two plates are exactly identical — which we loved, but that definitely involves additional labor and cost. We know $50 for four plates isn’t cheap! But we set out not to make the cheapest plates we could, but to make plates we loved and hoped others would too. Part of our costs are so we can work with great factories like this one. And part of it is so that we can pay our own team here in LA fairly, provide good benefits, generous paid leave, etc. As for environmental impact, our factory received a score of A (from A to E, E being the lowest) on environmental impact from an independent auditor -- which included a variety of factors, from water usage to waste management. When it comes to social impact, some brands do a blanket 1%, or "1 for 1" program. Doing good is good, full-stop. But we’re taking a slightly different approach. Every time we launch a new collection (like the Family Dinner Collection), we devise a targeted giveback strategy that’s tailored for the specific community we featured in the campaign. For Family Dinner, we shared stories from South Central LA, and wanted to give back to that community directly. Because we’re brand new (we just launched a couple weeks ago!) we are of course still developing what that means for us. So for this campaign, we chose to sponsor and help organize a local event that would help bring attention to Hank’s Mini Market in the neighborhood, shine a light on a local chef, help bring the community together, and lend a megaphone to the good work that the LA Food Policy Council is doing (we just posted about it on Instagram!). As we grow, those community initiatives will grow with us, and we'll be able to have a bigger and bigger impact. We hope that answers your questions and sheds some light on our pricing structure! But you can always reach out to hello@fromourplace.com if you feel like digging deeper. - Zach, and the team at Our Place