Indigo Traders expands its reach in Southwest Portland (2024)

View full sizeRebecca Koffman/ Special to the OregonianSamir Naser and Karla Bean in their new Hillsdale store. In front of them is a display of olive oil soaps from around the Mediterranean.

Indigo Traders, which has sold Mediterranean housewares in Multnomah Village since 2003, opened a second store in Hillsdale Town Center in July.

For husband and wife team Samir Naser and Karla Bean this is a big year. In addition to branching to a second store, they are taking their non-profit, the Global Backpack Project, into new territory. Next weekend sees the project's first big fundraiser: a fun run in Southwest Portland's Willamette Park.

Back to School Fun Run

Where:

Willamette Park

When:

Sunday, Sept. 2

8 a.m. Registration and packet pick-up

9 a.m. 5K Run/Walk

10:15 a.m. Half Miler (Ages 3-6)

10:45 a.m. One Miler (Ages 7-12)

11:15 a.m. Prizes and Awards

Register online ($30 adults, $5 kids)or at the event ($35 adults, $10 kids)

Indigo Traders

6352 S.W. Capitol Highway (Hillsdale)

7878 S.W. Capitol Highway (Multnomah Village)

503-780-2422

At their new Hillsdale store one recent morning, a table front and center bears hundreds of cakes of pale green, honey and gold olive oil soap from Syria, Palestine, Turkey and Italy. Shelves packed with pestemals, the traditional Turkish bath towels, line the walls.

“Turkish cotton is curly, Egyptian cotton is straight,” says Naser. He explains that Turkish cotton is best for towels because “it gets fluffy when washed,” and that smoother Egyptian cotton makes the best bedsheets. The new store also carries table linens, bedding, embroidered fabric from Palestine, Tunisian tagines and Turkish coffee cups.

The couple met in Jordan when Bean, who is from Idaho, went there to study Arabic. Naser was born and raised in Palestine. These days Naser travels twice a year on buying trips seeking out family businesses such as Fouad Fansa, the small concern that has been making olive oil and bay laurel soap in Aleppo since 1848.

"We haven't been able to reach them by phone recently," says Bean, worried about the current violence in that Syrian city.

By showcasing and contextualizing such traditional products, the couple aims to build connections between customers in Portland and the cultures of craftspeople in the Mediterranean and Middle East.

The new store has been open a month, and Bean says that Indigo Traders has been welcomed into the very supportive Hillsdale business community. As for attracting new customers, Naser mentions that the Hillsdale Farmers' Market brings in a lot of people.

Bean says "it always helps to be near a grocery store." Food Front Co-operative Grocery is a couple of doors along. "We knew we would get new customers here but we've been surprised by how many," Bean says.

Portlanders, she adds, really understand the importance of shopping locally and are interested in other cultures.

"In Multnomah Village for first Fridays, we cook a Mediterranean feast," says Bean. Vegetarian dishes of spicy fava beans, red peppers, rice and lentils, labneh or strained yoghurt sprinkled with za'atar. "It’s become a tradition."

The couple looks forward to feeding people at Hillsdale's monthly third Thursday events.

For the last fourteen years the couple has been taking backpacks full of school supplies on annual visits to Jordan where Naser’s family now lives.

Some schools there are overwhelmed with refugees from Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon. “The schools are just bare, desperate for supplies,” Bean says.

Over the years the backpack deliveries have morphed into a formalized non-profit. The Global Backpack Project now supplies a school in Uganda, and kids in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Locally, the project works with Neighborhood House, New Avenues for Youth, Native American Youth & Family Center and the Goose Hollow Family Shelter to provide school supplies to kids who may not participate in the Portland Public Schools system.

Next Sunday, the project is holding its first annual Back-to-School Fun Run. Bean is hoping for a big turnout. You can also donate backpacks at the two stores. Over the years, Bean says, customers have given generously.

“We have wonderful customers. They really want to see a better world."

- Rebecca Koffman