Because in order to comply with the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), effective February 10, 2009, all toymakers must pay a testing fee of $4,000 per type of toy they make, as well as permanently labeling them with a batch number and date (requiring them to create new molds in many cases). While this $4,000 fee will be barely felt by huge toymakers such as Mattel and Hasbro, it will annhilate the growing handmade toy industry in the U.S. and, for many importers, end their relationships with U.S. consumers. German wood toy maker Selecta Spielzeug has already announced its intention to pull its toys from the U.S. market, effective December 31. In a statement, the company said its retail prices would have to increase "by at least 50 percent, which would price these products out of the market." Small toymakers, such as the little company which sells wooden shields at a wholesale price of $7, would be out of business, as would nearly every other small American, Canadian and European toy company, according to the Handmade Toy Alliance. What's more, it could decimate Etsy, a marketplace for handmade goods.
The potential results of this act are so frightening and amazingly efficient I am left to wonder if it was drafted by the big toy manufacturers themselves. "We'll pay $12 million," I can imagine executives telling each other, "and we'll appear mollified by the government. Chastened and ready to return to the hallowed work of making toys for good little girls and boys."
When in reality, the companies would stand to win big if their small competitors with tiny budgets were to suddenly have a large financial barrier-to-entry in each and every vertical children's market.
It's as ironic as business mixed with politics can be. Due to the cheap overseas manufacturing that allowed Mattel and Hasbro to compete on low prices for their toys, pouring plastic doll after die-cast race car after 1,000-piece arts and crafts set into the American consumer's ever-increasing appetite for licensed entertainment, the big toy companies allowed toxic toys to get into the retail stream. Somewhere along the way, a segment of consumers staged a backlash, valuing handicraft, natural materials, local manufacturers, and the ability to escape the media tie-ins so many mainstream toys embrace. When the recalls began, even more Americans began to seek out wooden and cloth toys, hoping for safety in quality. The pendulum, it seemed, had shifted back from "everything at the lowest possible price, consequences be damned" to "less is more, especially if that less is lovingly handmade."
If the CPSIA is allowed to go into effect unchecked, small toy manufacturers will be out of business, and cottage industries providing children's products of every kind will cease to exist. A thriving market for "Waldorf"-style toys will have to go underground or be concentrated on a few types of toys manufactured in large-enough quantities to justify the fees and restrictions.
The parents I know are more angry than they've been in a long time over the Act, which is being quietly and efficiently passed. Many of us are just beginning to make a hue and cry. I wonder if Mattel or Hasbro or any of the other big baby's and children's product manufacturers are waiting eagerly to see if they're allowed to compete in a much, much wider marketplace in two months. If they succeed, their Machiavellian victory will be a disservice to mamas and little ones every where.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-16-2008 @ 10:04AM
Ed said...
Just to set the record straight, Hasbro had no toys recalled because of lead paint. Zero, zip .... none. Hasbro has had in place for years, the same quality controls that other toy manufacturers are just implementing now.