Wal-Mart’s Critical Role in Toy Safety
A new fact sheet from Wal-Mart Watch examines Wal-Mart’s enormous role in toy safety in America. Wal-Mart sells more toys than any other retailer in the county, importing them from countries with lax safety standards through manufactures like Mattel and Disney which are under enormous pressure to keep prices low, often at the cost of quality. As one toy company put it:
“Wal-Mart and these other buyers keep pushing for better terms, regardless of the conditions we face,” adds the owner of a textiles plant in the Shanghai area, wishing not to be identified. “Everyone is facing higher costs, but they can get away with it because the orders are so large and because there are so many companies competing for the same business.” [Financial Times, 9/4/07]
Wal-Mart has a history of consumer safety deception, and the safety standards it recently announced to not go far enough. Regardless of how many toys the company tests, safety problems will persist so long as the toy industry relies on dangerously cheap production methods.
Click here to download the fact sheet. (PDF)
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, September 10, 2007
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COMMENTS
walmart has a history of consumer safety deception----a more apt statement might be “walmart has a long,documented history of deception in many areas” (, from overtime disputes and discriminatory practices towrd women,the stealth tactics employed to site a superstore,the ruthlessness toward vendors,shall i continue, tainted pet food,shall i continue? what rational human being would expect any entity with such a track record to be concerned about toys,which provides such a lucrative market on such a consistent basis?
ddrb in
Tuesday, September 11 at 07:11 PM
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