Santa's looking for a few good American elves
What a great moment in history to be a small maker of toys in the United States of America.
Questionable Chinese labor practices? Loss of well-paying U.S. manufacturing jobs? These weren’t good enough reasons to get us buying American products. But poisoned toys? That may just do the trick.
Who would have ever thought that megaretailer Toys “R” Us, awash in Chinese toys, would actually be looking to buy more U.S. made products? “We are exploring it as we speak,” a spokeswoman for the retailer told me this week after the latest recall of millions of toys tainted with lead paint or made with dangerous, potentially harmful magnets.
This is a shout-out to all small toy makers in this nation, and to those aspiring entrepreneurs who have the toy industry in their sights. It’s a perfect storm for firms here to break in.
With some 80 percent of toys available at retail made in China, it can be hard to find toys made in the USA.
A recent trip to a dollar store with my kids and nieces in tow turned out to be a bust. I promised them all they could have one toy. The only parameters – the toys could not be made in China and couldn’t cost more than $2.
After searching the store shelves for about 40 minutes we turned up nothing that met my simple criteria. I decided to change the challenge a bit. There was no money limit on the toy, but it still couldn’t have the “Made in China” label.
The kids were able to find two things: A roll of bubble gum made in Mexico and a deck of playing cards made in America. (Well, it was a Japanese firm’s U.S. subsidiary.)
But with a bit of searching, you can find a few domestic firms. USMadeToys.com is a great place to start, offering an array of toys from a host of U.S. companies. Tim Cooke, the site’s owner, told me he’s seen an uptick in sales this week given the recent Mattel recall. “CNN even called me,” he says.
Maple Landmark, a 28-year-old Vermont wooden toy maker, has seen sales rise given all the media hype. Owner Mike Rainville has seen toy recalls come and go, but this one has really hit home with people given the many tainted goods, including recalls for tainted Chinese toothpaste and pet food. “You don’t poison people’s pets, and you don’t endanger children,” he says.
We’re all to blame for the influx of Chinese goods. There I was at a dollar store looking for the cheapest toys I could find. And the family room in my house if filled with cheap Chinese-made toys, piled high.
My mom reminded me recently that we used to get one fairly expensive toy for Christmas and it would last for years and years. Today, holidays and birthdays are filled with an avalanche of toys. Why? Because they’re cheap -- cheap in price and quality.
We all deserve what we’ve ended up with now, killer toys. How do you maintain such low prices without compromising quality and safety? This was inevitable.
Now that doesn’t mean U.S.-made toys are completely safe, but I’ll take my chances with my fellow-countrymen.
So come on toy makers, let us eat apple pie. I know it’s still summer, but the holiday shopping season will sneak up on us soon and it’s going to be tougher explaining to the kids that Santa couldn’t pony up this year because his elves were all hammering away in a Chinese factory.
