The Wal-Mart Connection

Amidst the holiday shopping season and on the heels of massive toy recalls, products manufactured in China are a hot topic. In recent Congressional hearings, blame was cast on entities ranging from the CPSC to manufacturers to the Chinese government. Oddly, retailers and specifically Wal-Mart were rarely mentioned.

With Wal-Mart as the nation’s largest toy seller and China’s seventh largest trading partner, it is disturbing that the behemoth retailer takes no responsibility for the negative impact of its cost pressures on manufacturers. For years manufacturers have shifted jobs overseas, where labor is cheaper and safety regulations are lax. The result is no secret: Wal-Mart’s cost pressure on manufacturers and the Chinese factories which supply them is manifesting itself in the form of both unsafe working conditions and unsafe products.

As the Mattel toy recall drama unfolded this summer, our Hong Kong-based organization, Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), released a report regarding appalling worker conditions at five toy factories in China. Kam Long toys, one of the surveyed factories and a direct supplier to Wal-Mart, was found an unsafe and inhumane workplace for thousands of Chinese toy factory workers.

Read the rest of this story ...

Posted by Jenny Chan on Tuesday, December 04 | 38 comments | Permalink

Friday Blog Round-Up: Human Rights and Superconsumers

It’s Cyber ~~Monday~~ Week! But don’t think there’s not a whole lot else going on in the world of Wal-Mart.

SUSTAINABILITY AND MASS RETAILING ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Wal-Mart kicked off the orgy of overconsumption and frivolity that IS the holiday shopping season with Black Friday last week. The company is hoping the Baccanalian riot will continue all the way to Christmas eve. How does the company manage to simultaneously promote rampant consumerism AND claim to be environmentally-friendly? We’re mildly astounded.

A Holiday Message [Marc Gunther, Huffington Post]

Yes, ‘tis the season when millions of Americans work themselves into a frenzy by buying things for others (and themselves) that they don’t need with money they don’t have. In a down economy.

It’s a stark reminder that the road to sustainability will be a long and difficult one and that corporate America, without environmental activism and dramatic changes in consumer behavior, won’t get us there anytime soon.

Wal-Mart, desperate for a good holiday shopping season, is keeping its Canadian stores open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, like it does with many of its US-based stores. While this may or may not help its business, Wal-Mart’s actions are almost certainly hurting the environment. From Writing on the Wal:

Here’s an example of how Wal-Mart’s sustainability crusade jumps the tracks. Keeping those 80 stores open 24 hours a day means higher energy use during decidedly off-peak shopper hours. It also means that employees are going to be driving their cars more to staff the extra hours. The result is a larger carbon footprint for Wal-Mart.

And despite all the dispute over whether Wal-Mart’s green initiatives are for real (we’re not exactly convinced over here, and many people raise excellent points about the inherent unsustainability of Wal-Mart’s business model) Clean Break does raise a hopeful point:

The fact is there’s a competition going on amongst major retailers in North America who want to be perceived as the greenest of them all. They see this as a way to gain a competitive advantage and at the same time lower costs, and perhaps just as important, they see they have no option if they want to stay relevant in a market where green-minded consumers are demanding more. This is all a very good thing.

While others, no matter how much good the company does, won’t forget Wal-Mart’s past sins:

Wal-Mart: Putting The “Light” In Enlightenment [Ecorazzi]

Wal-Mart could plant 5 billion trees, invent a magic car that runs only on positive thoughts and strap Dick Cheney on a spaceship to the moon and I STILL wouldn’t touch those corndogs!

After the jump, Human Rights Campaign, toxic toys and superconsumers.

Read the rest of this story ...

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, November 30 | 30 comments | Permalink

Retailers To Take Some Responsibility for Toy Testing

Retailers Face the Test of Testing [Wall Street Journal]

With the start of the holiday season and worries over the safety of imported toys, leading retailers say they are stepping up testing before toys hit store shelves, retesting toys already in their inventories and toughening demands on manufacturers and importers.

Toys “R” Us Inc. says it now requires suppliers to identify the name and address of the factory that produced items and to certify that third-party testing has found each batch of goods to be safe. Target Corp. says it has expanded testing for its store-brand toys, including testing at multiple stages of the production process for small parts and lead paint.

Retailers want, among other things, to head off lawsuits and legislation that could hurt their business. But extra testing might not be enough to assuage consumers and stave off stepped-up enforcement, as well as new laws that would increase fines and give regulators more authority to crack down on unsafe goods. Lead is a particular concern because it can cause neurological damage, especially in young children.

Consumer groups and some state officials doubt that retailers’ testing is helping. Last week, an environmental-health group said it had purchased 19 toys with excessive levels of lead, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group said it, too, found unsafe toys on store shelves.

Read the rest of this story ...

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, November 26 | 0 comments | Permalink

Everyone’s At Risk

Campaign for America’s Future provides a humorous look at the dangers of the unregulated toy industry. Click here to watch the video.

Barbie Tells CPSC to Get The Lead Out In Viral Video [Washington Post]

Another reason to avoid sleeping with an ex: fear of contracting lead poisoning.

Just ask Barbie, who got it from Ken.

That’s according to “Toxic Toys: A Poisonous Affair,” a YouTube attack on the Consumer Product Safety Commission produced by the nonprofit Campaign for America’s Future.

The video’s release last week came after Democratic lawmakers called for the ousting of CPSC acting Chairman Nancy Nord and after the California attorney general sued 20 companies—including Barbie-maker Mattel—for producing toys with unlawful quantities of lead.

Read the rest of this story ...

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, November 26 | 0 comments | Permalink

U.S. PIRG Report: Tainted Toys Still on Store Shelves

A new report from U.S. PIRG exposes deadly toys still being sold at Wal-Mart and other major retailers. The report makes clear that even if every recalled toy was taken off store shelves, many products with toxic amounts of lead would remain. The current toy recall system is ineffective at best and actively harmful at worst. As the largest toy retailer in the country, Wal-Mart plays a leadership role in the toy industry, and bears much of the responsibility for how (and at what cost) toys are produced. To learn more about Wal-Mart’s role in product safety, download the latest issue of Wal-Mart Watch In Depth: Danger for Sale.

Toys Still Tainted with Lead [CNN Money]

More toys tainted with extremely high levels of lead were found on the shelves at major U.S. retailers, according to an advocacy group’s survey released Tuesday.

The U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which released the “2007 Trouble in Toyland” report, highlighted hazards that included lead, dangerous small magnets, and toys that pose choking and strangulation hazards.

“While we have seen progress after more than two decades of advocacy on behalf of America’s littlest consumers, U.S. PIRG’s researchers still found trouble in toyland on store shelves this fall,” said Ed Mierzwinski, the consumer program director at the U.S. PIRG.

Read the rest of this story ...

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, November 21 | 29 comments | Permalink

Toy Recalls Threaten Black Friday Profits

A story out today from the Chicago Tribune examines how lead-tainted toys are still being sold at stores across Illinois. The 11-page investigation shows that consumers everywhere are still worried about toy safety, and analysts predict that these lingering concerns are going to damage holiday sales. This is a perfect example of how investing in product quality saves money in the long run: toy recalls have cost manufacturers and retailers billions of dollars this year, and that’s not helping anyone’s bottom line.

As the AP story below explains, Wal-Mart is slashing prices in hopes of convincing consumers to buy its faulty products anyway. However, cutting costs no matter what the price is the mentality that got Wal-Mart in this situation in the first place. When it comes to product safety, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Wal-Mart could boost its stock price and protect American consumers at the same time.

Click here to read more about Wal-Mart’s product safety record.

Toy Recalls, Iffy Economy Aid Shoppers [Associated Press via Las Vegas Sun]

Lead on toys was bad enough, but last week’s recall of a toy tainted with a date rape drug threatens to turn into a lump of coal for toy retailers just as the key holiday selling season gets started.

The recall of Aqua Dots comes just as the industry was starting to see shoppers return to toy stores after summer’s high-profile recalls of more than 21 million Chinese-made toys with high levels of lead or dangerous magnets.

Aqua Dots, distributed by Spin Master Ltd. in the U.S. but made in China, was on many retailers’ hot toy lists, and there are very few substitutes, retail executives say.

Read the rest of this story ...

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, November 19 | 53 comments | Permalink

California Attorney General Forcing Manufacturers’ Hand On Product Safety?

The Los Angeles Times today reports that the State of California and the City of Los Angeles are filing suit against 20 toy manufacturers and retailers, “accusing them of making or selling products that contain ‘unlawful quantities of lead.’”

It should be a welcome move by Californians, and all Americans who are clearly becoming fed up with the endless stream of product recalls in recent months. The tough talk is encouraging: “‘Obviously, they do not want to put warnings. They are going to eliminate the lead or eliminate the product,’ said Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown. ‘But, going forward, we want to prevent these kind of things from happening.’”

The suit comes under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (California Health and Safety Code section 25249.6), also known as Proposition 65,” which requires businesses to provide persons with a “clear and reasonable warning” before exposing individuals to chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive harm. Under the California Unfair Competition Act, violators of Proposition 65 can be fined up to $2,500 per violation, per day.

Wal-Mart is one of the defendants named to the suit, although in the spirit of equal airtime, toy companies such as Mattel and Fisher Price, and other retailers including Target, Sears, K-Mart and Toys R Us were also named. You can find the Attorney General’s press release here, and the complaint filed in Alameda County Superior Court here.

More, from the Los Angeles Times:

The California attorney general and Los Angeles city attorney filed a lawsuit today against Mattel Inc., Toys R Us Inc. and 18 other companies, accusing them of making or selling products that contain “unlawful quantities of lead.”

The move follows major recalls of toys, lunchboxes, children’s jewelry and other goods during the last year by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington.

Read the rest of this story ...

Posted by Eric Bull on Monday, November 19 | 10 comments | Permalink