In Store

This trip around the world was brought to you by unique home accessories and the letter “a”

Photo by Sharon Styer

When I was a boy, my parents gave me a book about different cultures and faraway places, quite a window to the world for an eight-year-old kid from Tacoma. As I turned the pages, I raced from Afghanistan to Argentina to Armenia and on to the Bs, traveling the world’s most exotic countries in alphabetical order.

I hadn’t thought about that book in — well, I won’t tell you how many decades — until this summer when I stepped through the door of Laughing Lotus. This new retail establishment is the brainchild of four local importers who are adorning Tacoma with unique home accessories, jewelry and gifts made by artisans in small villages around the world.

“We have handcrafted items right now from roughly twenty countries,” says co-owner Claire Petrich, who is also Tacoma’s port commissioner and owner of Dockmandu, a retail import warehouse on the tide flats.

I don’t know about you, but when I slap down my hard-earned discretionary income on a collection of Peruvian ceramics, I like to put my money where it makes a difference, and Petrich and company scour the world’s villages for sustainable, fair-trade, easy-on-the-planet goods.

Whether an antique rosewood cabinet from Jiangsu is on your must-have list, or a recycled paper bead necklace from Uganda, Laughing Lotus is where you’ll find it. But if traveling vicariously by shopping doesn’t quite scratch your itch, check out one of Laughing Lotus’s evening travel talks, presented by a different local traveler each month — that is, someone who actually acquired the frequent-flier miles trekking through Afghanistan or Argentina or Armenia and brought back the stories and slide shows to prove it. (Stop by the store for a Travel Talk schedule.)

Laughing Lotus

3013-B Sixth Avenue, Tacoma, 253.627.0522
Tues. – Sun., 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Plus one Friday evening per month for Travel Talks.