Parents won’t toy with Christmas
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Scott Jagow: Retailers really couldn’t have asked for a better start to the holiday season, considering all the economic doom and gloom. Shoppers turned out in droves over the weekend. Sales for Friday and Saturday were 7 percent higher than last year.
Today is Cyber Monday, as dubbed by the National Retail Federation. A lot of stores are having one-day online sales to keep people in the shopping mood. But the Grinch could be out there somewhere, plotting . . .
Grinch: I must stop Christmas from coming! But . . . how?
Could all those toy recalls be his idea? Ashley Milne-Tyte has more.
Ashley Milne-Tyte: Toy recalls happen every year. But this year, some famous names, like Thomas the Tank Engine, lost their place on the shelves.
Chris Byrne is a toy analyst. He says the recalls may have made parents a little wary, but most won’t change their buying habits — because they don’t want to be the Grinch who stole Christmas.
Chris Byrne: When parents are buying holiday gifts, it’s about order fulfillment, or wish granting, more kindly put. If there’s a decline in the toy industry, I think it’s gonna have to do with other macroeconomic issues.
Like high gas prices or maxed-out credit cards. He says this holiday season could be the safest in years.
Byrne: The level of testing at all stages of production that’s been going on for toys that are now coming into the U.S., I think that they can buy with more confidence.
Byrne says lead paint may have grabbed the headlines in the last few months, but he says lead doesn’t top the list of what toy buyers should worry about, Loose toy parts are still the biggest threat, especially for children under 3.
In New York, I’m Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.
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