Should this be a made-in-Europe Christmas?
In Europe, Some Toy Makers Shun the China Label
With Mattel and the American toy industry reeling from recalls of millions of Chinese-made toys, most because of lead paint, some of Europe’s best-known toy makers find themselves in the fortuitous position of having bucked an industrywide trend of moving production to China.
“Looking back, it feels like it was right to make that decision,” said Andrea Schauer, managing director of Geobra Brandstätter, which makes Playmobil toys. “At the level of quality we need,” she said, “we didn’t have enough manpower to inspect factories in China.”
With parents fretting about the safety hazards of toy cars and trains and Barbie accessories, the not-made-in-China label could prove to be a boon to these European toy makers, particularly in their domestic markets. […] “A lot of the sales still rely on the expertise of the guy whom I call Fritz,” said Sean McGowan, a toy industry analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities in New York. “To the extent that parents are at all concerned about this, Fritz is going to steer them toward Lego and Playmobil.”
Even in the United States, analysts say, there could be a modest bounce for toys not made in China, be they European or American, if parents take the time to look at labels during the coming holiday shopping season. The drawback, some worry, is that consumers might spurn toys altogether.
Sales of Playmobil toys are growing at a double-digit rate, Ms. Schauer said. In a twist, it plans to export its European-made toys to Chinese cities like Shanghai and Beijing next year.
Here is why Mattel and others took so long to issue a recall.
We export our jobs and give manufacture of things from the mundane to the critical to overseas sweatshops with little to no oversight then wonder why we have crap on our shelves. China didn’t do this to us, we did by accepting stupid and shortsighted business practices.
China didn’t do this to us, we did by accepting stupid and shortsighted business practices.
Or could it be that the American worker wants something for nothing, expecting to get paid a ridiculous amount of money for producing plastic toys? Thank your unions.
If there was even a modicum of pride in one’s work, respect for what one produces, and an expectation of quality and craftsmanship, the American economy would be radically different, and this would be a non-issue. Rather it’s a question of how much money can one get for producing nothing.
American consumerism is a buy-now worry about the consequences later mentality.
You deserve what you get.
“Capital knows no flag.” That was the mantra of several of the international consultants we talked to as we attempted to find the best technology for our company. (In terms of the game show host – a “major military service” 🙂
It’s true for the capitalist – his only concern is where he can make the most money for his money. But politics, environment, public response, legal restraints, and PR all have an impact. The best capitalists take all elements into account and “Make Money.”
On CNN last night I noted the corporations selling this dangerous crap have stated, prices will rise if they’re forced to make sure their products aren’t going to kill anyone.
That’s very rich humor. They fire their North American employees because they can get the crap made much cheaper in China, increasing their profits because the can charge the same amount for goods created by prisoners and near-slaves.
Then, when it looks like they’re going to be forced to pay to make sure their products are safe, they say they have to raise their prices above what they used to cost when they were made safely in North America by North Americans.
The corporations win, no matter what happens and North Americans pay a high price for crap, no matter what happens.
I also noted the corporations want the American government to regulate their business, which is pretty humorous in itself.
What they mean is, they want American lawmakers to put the onus and expense of safe crap on the manufacturers in China or the third party importers, not the corporations actually selling the crap and making the big profits.
I just love to observe capitalism and free enterprise when it’s working so perfectly.
Blame the communists that run our government right now, known as the neoconservatives. We treat christian mexico as an enemy, but we treat godless red communist china as some sort of friend and trading partner even though its human rights record looks like the inside of a serial killer’s basement.
Europe actually has safety standards and to some degree is actually concerned about its citizens welfare! What a shocker!
>>the American worker wants something for nothing, expecting to
>>get paid a ridiculous amount of money for producing plastic toys?
What do you expect? In a society where steroid-fueled monsters are paid tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to play little boys’ games on TV, it doesn’t seem unreasonable that someone who works his ass off for da man would want a little increase over minimum wage.
#5 Steve Savage “Blame the communists that run our government right now, known as the neoconservatives. We treat christian mexico as an enemy, but we treat godless red communist china as some sort of friend…”
Are you stuck in a time bubble where there are ‘White Only / Coloured Only areas’ in the US? Really you think China is still Red China? 😆 Have you been in a coma since the 1950’s? China today is communist by name alone, who is it that you think are making everything for the world? State run companies? No, private enterprise just like the US. Capitalism has taken root in China and has sprouted.
Communism in China? In fact just recently there have been two high ranking Chinese central government officials who have just been elected who are NOT members of the communist party. The Chinese government has stated that this is just continuing political reform.
You and so many like you are quick to point the finger at China and its human rights issues. Yes, China under Mao was extreme and China has problems with human rights today but not from government policy but from private enterprise and corruption which the government admits its inability to enforce laws.
This is different than say the Khmer Rouge the ruling political party of Cambodia whose official policies where the source of the carnage.
It took the US only over 140 years to free the slaves but you scream at China for not doing more in the 30 years it has effectively turned around on a dime. Seems today the KKK is still running strong in the US so I suppose it is not so cool to be a non-white in the US. Hmmm?
By the way just so you know, Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam are the last real communist countries left – and Cuban cigars are made by State run companies.
So Steve don’t get to close to that burning cross – the ‘made in China’ white hood you’re wearing didn’t pass fire safety standards. 😉
Cheers
…it’s all Nixon’s fault anyway.
Its because American conservatives are faith-based in nearly all they do.
They blindly believe in free trade so they blundered forward without fully recognizing the dangers of outsourcing things that we (and our kids) put in our mouths.
#2 – Or could it be that the American worker wants something for nothing, expecting to get paid a ridiculous amount of money for producing plastic toys? Thank your unions.
Asking for a living wage and to be treated with dignity is not ridiculous.
If there was even a modicum of pride in one’s work, respect for what one produces, and an expectation of quality and craftsmanship, the American economy would be radically different, and this would be a non-issue.
What stunning insights do you have that the rest of us don’t? I take great pride in the quality of my work and so do the those I work with. What do you know about me that I don’t know?
Or is this just more bullshit from a cranky know-it-all with an axe to grind but no idea who to grind it with…
If you want to bemoan the outsourcing of manufacturing, instead of bitching about hard working Americans who simply wanted to be paid for their efforts, you should bitch to owning class whose greed outpaced their patriotism and decided to sell out their nation for short term gains despite the long term damage these policies cause.
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#4 – I just love to observe capitalism and free enterprise when it’s working so perfectly.
Comment by Cinaedh — 9/19/2007 @ 6:04 am
Was there ever a time that it worked perfectly? 🙂
Pure and unfettered capitalism has proven itself to be a failing idea for quite a long time now… and it should be obvious to anyone making less than 6 figures a year…
Sadly so very few Americans make less that 6 fig… no… wait… the opposite is actually true…
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#7 – It took the US only over 140 years to free the slaves but you scream at China for not doing more in the 30 years it has effectively turned around on a dime.
Well… I guess you told us 🙂
I find your on the spot perspective to be quite welcome, and imagine that others who respect reality over platitude find it welcoming as well.
The american consumer is to blame, and this isn’t even open to discussion.
The endless demand for cheaper and cheaper crap fueled by their endless walking up and down wal mart’s aisles is why these products find their way here. The american consumer has a long, long history of demanding the cheapest crap possible and pushing aside better, costlier products. One need to simply look at the cell phone market and see what phones we get here as opposed to europe, where consumers there actually want quality products and are willing to pay the extra money for them.
10 – OFTLO
“Was there ever a time that it worked perfectly? :-)”
Only in our hopes and dreams in the 50’s! By the way, it’s no fun at all, even when you’re making six figures. It’s hell on earth, in fact.
#11 – The american consumer is to blame, and this isn’t even open to discussion.
It obviously is open to discussion because we are discussing it.
And I happen to think that the consumer is a victim here. We don’t demand this crap… its just the crap that is offered.
#12 – Only in our hopes and dreams in the 50’s! By the way, it’s no fun at all, even when you’re making six figures. It’s hell on earth, in fact.
I’m gonna need that theory to be tested and proven. I submit that you start paying me 6 figures annually, and just before I die I’ll tell you which half of my life was more fun. 😉
“And I happen to think that the consumer is a victim here. We don’t demand this crap… its just the crap that is offered. ”
Perhaps, but I know just as many people with the financial means to purchase a better quality product yet still gravitate towards a WalMart for that better deal.
15. Oh I forgot….Argghhhh!
#15 – Perhaps, but I know just as many people with the financial means to purchase a better quality product yet still gravitate towards a WalMart for that better deal.
I can tell you first hand, if I were in a better tax bracket (like I was during the Clinton years) I’d sure as hell be wearing a much better looking pair of pants right now.
Wal Mark isn’t a better deal. It’s just what many people are settling for after they balance their checkbook.
By using a Playmobile picture, you’ve warmed my heart.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Playmobile and Lego come from Europe. They’re the most well thought out toys around, and they always have an audience.
As a kid, I loved my Optimus Prime action figure… but I got more use out of the Legos over the long haul.
China hasn’t bankrolled European politicians like they have here. They bankrollled the Clintons, and even now Norman Hsu is trying it again. Than they have a Republican Labor Secretary who is family friends with their Prime Minister.
Arrrr, ’tis a bounteous day indeed when ye, James Hill, have a true piratey soul.
“but I got more use out of the Legos over the long haul.”
Me tiny lass did indeed discover the true treasure o’ imagination wi’ the wondrous trinkets. Even me parrot says, “Arrrrr.”
#14 OFTLO
“I’m gonna need that theory to be tested and proven. I submit that you start paying me 6 figures annually, and just before I die I’ll tell you which half of my life was more fun. 😉 “
That’s a valid proposal but somewhat beyond my means these days.
I’m afraid the pager and cell phone I was forced to carry for many years, which managed to make my entire life miserable – over and above the sixteen hours a day I worked, seven days a week – are now located on the bottom Lake Superior, where I trust they are still happily ringing, vibrating and beeping.
Where I live now, neither of those things would work, nor does the evil Blackberry. This is by design and not by accident.
I learned from Monty Python: the trick in life is not to be seen – or found.
Sorry, I can no longer afford you. You’re fired!
Aaaaarrrrrgggghhhhhh! Walk the plank, matey and remember, Superior never gives up her dead.
2. brucemlloyd: Or could it be that the American worker wants something for nothing, expecting to get paid a ridiculous amount of money for producing plastic toys? Thank your unions.
Doesn’t everyone want something for nothing? Isn’t that the whole basis of the capitalist system? I mean really, why does someone like myself, who programs web pages for living, which takes all about a week to learn to do proficiently gets paid four times as much as a dry wall plasterer (which takes about a month or so to learn proficiently)? Nothing to do with unions, nothing to do with hard work, it just has to do with the fact there is more guy’s out there who can put plaster than can build web pages (which is why I gave up plastering).
And isn’t something-for-the-nothing the whole point of investment, indeed the whole point of the free market? You sock away a chunk of money, then you invest, and sit on your arse and watch it grow and grow.
I don’t why it is that every time some Joe Slop in a factory or working checkout at Walmart was an extra 50 cents everyone is up and arms about workers wanting too much yet no seems to think twice about how much your average already-has-more-money-than-sense gets through his investment funds, or how much executives are getting every time they fuck something up!
I followed the link..
Its very interesting that there are ALOT of companies in China that are using LEAD paint..
AND its our CORPS fault, as we accepted THEIR corps to make our toys.
Its also our CORPS FAULT that those on top want ALOT more money then the heads of companies in china(comparatively), its NOT just labor laws…IF the CEO and board members got the SAME wage as those on the assembly line, would there be a complaint of the cost of USA made toys??
How many of you KNOW that imposts from Europe have a VERY high tax on them? But, China doesn’t…
For some reason I doubt parents will pay $50 for a happy meal toy made in the USA.
24,
and the profit margin is HOW MUCH?? 99%??
Plastics are easy to make and manufacture.. MAX price is
#2 – I don’t think you can always blame the middle income worker for this, as expecting to be paid a lot for their labor. Most of what drives corporations to dump american jobs is the cost of health care. It the professional jobs (doctors, lawyers, and corporate execs) that have had the biggest increases. Not to mention sports, Tv and movie stars. And its the middle and lower income wage earner that ends up paying for their high times. And when the average joe no longer has the bread to pay for luxury items like kids’ toys and Tv sets. The Wal-Marts and K-Marts of the world respond by going oversea to have them made by people of even lower standards of living (no health care or old age benefits). And the “slavings” is partly passed onto the consumer. But mainly onto the majority stockholders and CEOs.
We don’t have competitive businesses anymore. Not when the only competition is to see who can find the cheapest source of labor in the whole and exploit it. And after that, come the quality issue. And that’s why “lead” tends to be the gag point. Because eventually a lowered level of manufacturer quality leads to some form of contamination. It’s probaby in things we have all around us, right now. But they’ve only been testing childrens’ toys for it. And cheap metal jewelry.
We’re probably all lead contaminated to some degree, by now. And the reason I think the CPSC takes so long to warn us, is it needs a time cushion for those that it’s really protecting, to move their financial assets into other products. Like Martha Stewart being warned to bail out of Amgen before the FDA made its pronouncement. This probably happens more often than we know. And the government leaks the bad news to those that stand to take the biggest financial hit, when the stock falls. By the time the rest of us hear about, they’ve already bailed weeks ago.
PRIDE in workmanship went out with Handmade toys. And the OLD tonka METAL toys.
CORPS want Zombies, FAST production, LOWER wages(except to those upper positions, WHICh get more, est, about 100 TIMES more).
If Corps could sell crap in a box, and get away with it, THEY WOULD. And it would solve 90% of the sewage problems in the USA…BUT THEN, someone would want to SELL it to the SELLERS, insted of it being FREE.
#2 you aint OLD enough to say that.
YOU dont remember when we MADE our OWN toys…Or when the buther used to have dog bones from FREE…
You aint old enough to remember being able to ‘Trick or treat’ ANYWHERE in town and your parents NOT worry about you.
(record is 6 grocery bags FULL, Paper).
AND I dont think you have spent much time in RETAIL sales to know HOW MUCH the corp is really making…
Here is what the moderate liberal – and hence, very sensible and wise – columnist Froma Harrop has to say on this topic. I commend it to everyone’s attention. Arrrgh!
#28, Lauren,
While I agree with her assessment, her solution is wrong.
The solution, ultimately, is for Americans to vote with their credit cards against a production system that trolls the earth for the most downtrodden labor force and lowest environmental standards. Rather than zero in on one country or company, let’s zero in on ourselves. American consumers must understand that low prices come with a price.
It doesn’t matter if it is taxes or consumer purchases, everyone wants to pay as little as possible. When the cost of that tax or purchase is remote then we don’t see the true cost. Suggesting we change our behavior for something we can’t see just won’t work. Everyone will continue to take the iHotAir(YOP) approach and say “why should I change my comfortable lifestyle for someone else”.
The sane (and in my view best) approach is to enact better standards for American workers and apply those standards to all imported goods. Yes, our purchase cost will increase, but our net social costs will decrease.