More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China? (1 Viewer)

[Cees Alons]

The chairman of the Chinese factory that made the recalled Fisher Price toys, (conveniently, I must add) hung himself to days ago.


Cees

 

[Marianne]

Sounds a bit like what happened to a witness in "Analyze That".

Dr. Ben Sobel: I thought you were in prison?
Jelly: It would appear not.
Dr. Ben Sobel: How'd you get out?
Jelly: I had a new trial. Turns out that the evidence in the first trial was tainted.
Dr. Ben Sobel: O, I see
Jelly: Anyway, two of the witnesses decided not to testify and the third guy, well, he commited suicide.
Dr. Ben Sobel: How?
Jelly: He stabbed himself in the back four times and threw himself off a bridge

 

[Holadem]

That's my reading as well. Guy on the radio said it was a design issue, but due to the unfortunate timing of this recall, that factoid is getting lost in the current scare. News outlets sure aren't going out of their way to explain that the origin of the toys in this case may have little to do with the problem, and that Mattel's engineering is to blame.

--
H

 

[Cees Alons]

Marianne,

Similar thoughts as yours went through my mind.


Cees

 

[Regulus]

Whenever Possible, I Buy ABC. Thats;

Anywhere

But

China!

 

[Marianne]

Another thing relating to the toy recall. Obviously the first thing people will be concerned with is their children's safety, but then comes the question: I paid good money for these toys - do I get a refund?

 

[Michael Warner]

I have to admit that I rarely ever looked at country of origin labels on food. I usually buy Martinelli's apple juice and sparkling cider but I picked up a couple of jugs of Target brand AJ the other day. Sure enough it says "China concentrate" on the bottles. I guess it's time to become more diligent about these things and I think my flowers will be getting a nice treat of apple juice.

 

[PhillJones]

If they're part of the specific recall, then yes. If not, then no.

The thing is Matell found a small batch of toys (1 million) contaminated with lead and recalled them. Two weeks later they recalled an order of magnitude more (9 million). I don't know but I suspect they decided that they'd better test everything from China and recall anything dangerous. Kudos to Matell for doing the right thing.

BUT

How come nobody else has issued a massive recall. Either A) Matell was amazingly unlucky and bought the only lead contaminated toys made in China. or B) Other toy manufacturers have not take the action of testing their catalogue of toys just to be safe and are knowingly leaving contaminated toys on the market. Given the fact that the use of lead paint is endemic in Chinese toy manufactuer, my vote is for B.

That's why we've disposed of all our Chinese made toys. It would be statistically unlikely that no other toy importer bought contaminated toys.

 

[Marianne]

Phill, I didn't find any mention of refunds or replacements on Mattel's website but found this in WalMart's recalls section relating to the "Sarge" toy lead paint recall:

"Remedy: Consumers should immediately take the recalled toys away from children and contact Mattel. Consumers will need to return the product to receive a replacement toy."

Hmm, I wonder where Mattel will get all the replacement toys from?

Regarding the Chinese CEO who committed suicide there was an interview with some of the employees of the factory who have now lost their jobs. They don't blame their boss, they blame the local paint supplier, who didn't supply the correct paint. Apparently, the supplier and his family have disappeared.

 

[PhillJones]

I thought they were refunding. a replacement seems a poor deal for a parent who no longer trusts the supply chain. having said that I think Metell toys are probably the safest imported toys right now as it looks like they're rigorously testing everything.

As for the paint supplier. The employees of the factory are misinformed if they think their boss isn't at fault. Matell vet the paint suppliers because the use of lead paint in toy manufacture in China is a known problem. The factory changed to a cheaper supplier, without asking permission from Matell. The mistake that Matell made is not checking up frequently enough.

NPR were claiming that it's standard business practise in China to double check that your supplier is doing what they promised because on the flip side, changing to a cheap supplier as soon as the company you're supplying isn't watching is standard practice. They claimed int their report that it's very much a 'caveat emptor' economy.