Is it time to start selling your Mattel, Inc., (NYSE: MAT) stock? In Yet Another incidence of Fisher Price toys being tainted (figuratively and literally) with lead, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) has pulled the Fisher Price Medical Kit from its web site after a Consumer Reports article that questioned the lead content in the kit's toy blood pressure cuff. Mattel has insisted that children can play doctor safely because the toy "meets the requirements set forth in the federal regulations and international consumer product safety standards, including the existing standards for lead content." Note Mattel did not claim that the toy was free from lead.As I've mentioned before, these toy recalls have lead (har!) me to the conclusion that it's just not worth buying plastic toys for my children any more. I've been flipping through the Nova Natural catalog to plan for holiday buying and regularly carting off boxes of my boys' plastic toys to Goodwill.
Judging by the excitement over leaked Black Friday ads, it seems as if I'm a rarity. This news does bring out a couple of questions, however:
- Will we soon start seeing vigilante recalls like this one from Amazon.com as retailers work to minimize their risk in toy recalls?
- Does it cost enough to effect a recall that it might make sense to anger a major supplier like Mattel?
- Isn't this recall just a little bit too ironic? My blood pressure is rising, too!
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