Another Day Another Recall

As you open the newspaper or listen to the news on television you will hear that another recall is in progress. Once again one of the world's largest toy manufacturer's has had to recall some 155,000 products for safety issues for children. In past months there have been a recalls for 17,000 items and another for 7,000, due to safety issues of small parts possibly detaching and causing choking issues in children. The largest recall was in foreign made products resulting in 21 million recalled because of excessive levels of lead paint and unsafe parts.

Recalls should make the public more confident in the manufacturer, that they are checking and rechecking manufacturing of products for safety and other issues. However the general public has been bombarded with recalls for items purchased in many areas; food, drug, toothpaste and toys in the last few months. People begin to wonder why are such products being allowed to be sold and why are they not checked prior to a company acquiring such items?

Will people have enough confidence in bringing items into this country for purchasing to make the purchase? Or will they look to see where the item comes from and simply replace it on the shelf and opt for forgoing that particular purchase. With the holiday season around the corner will parents still have enough confidence in toy products to purchase them? Even though parents should make sure a toy is age appropriate for their own child they rely on manufacturer's to make sure that the toys they produce meet regulation codes for safety in all areas of production.

Who produces a toy, what materials are used to produce a toy and where a toy is produced is the responsibility of the manufacturer. We have no say as to where they build their plants, the products they use to make the toys or whom they employ. However, in light of all the recalls and these toys being produced in other countries, the general public is going to have some say about the manufacturing of the company's' toys. One such recall was due to excessive amounts of lead in the paint, this resulted in a world wide recall of millions of toys. Why was this paint even available for production of a toy?

We have dealt with recalls for many years, mass production of items is not perfect and here and there something might be missed that is easily remedied with supplying a simple part. But in light of the recalls of the past months, companies can not remedy the situation that easily. Massive recalls have had to take place, some of which have cost manufacturer to lose the company they built in the effort to make things right.

It appears companies are trying to fly under the radar and procure items for selling that may or may not be a potential problem Yet when something happens and someone is harmed a mass recall goes into place and the media is all over it. Thus making the manufacturer appear to be doing their best to keep people from harm when in fact they are using the media to bring attention to that which might have gone unnoticed prior to. One such meat company found that this was not the avenue to success, since this was the second time they had to recall product due to problems. Why did they not fix the issue in the first place so that this would not happen again?

Many companies are procuring manufacturing plants outside of the United States for various reasons, the main one being lower wages. However it is one of the biggest toy manufacturer's in this country that is outsourcing into other areas of the world so profit margins will go up. It should be obvious to the manufacturer that this is not quite as advantageous now as it was in the beginning when started years ago.

There have always been Americans that will not purchase items not made in this country by Americans but this latest recall could push more in to that way of thinking as well. Even with more stringent regulations for toy safety on the horizon will this be enough to bolster American faith that toy manufacturers have their child's best interest at heart this holiday season?

The public is looking twice at everything they purchase because their pay does not go as far as it once had. People do not want to buy something that may or may not be recalled because of where it was made or what is was made with or of. It is not just in purchasing toys for children but in all aspects of shopping. One has to look at what and where something came from as well as the cost.

This could prove to be a different holiday buying season for the year. With people not only trying to stretch their money farther but looking to see where the item comes from and who manufactured it. A company or manufacturer's name may not be enough to carry it through to the check out and home this holiday season.