Could Price Cuts Worsen China's Toy Quality?

With all the issues surrounding products made in China, there is also a sense that the competition for very cheap products might also contribute to poor working conditions for various Chinese laborers. This also includes products made for Disney.

Walt Disney Co. and Sanrio Co. are among companies whose demands for lower prices from Chinese toy suppliers contribute to low product quality, according to New York-based advocacy group China Labor Watch.
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Pearl Tower Garments & Toys Co. in Shenzhen, which makes Mickey Mouse dolls for Disney, doesn't provide pension, unemployment or maternal insurance for many of its 1,000 workers, violating its employee contracts, the report said.

Disney, of course, has a stringent policy against such labor exploitation. But to what extent can they verify such compliance all the time?

As a substantial Disney consumer, I am also indirectly responsible for this to occur. In fact, as a pin collector, the problems come in two different ways. The first is that practically all of the Disney pins are made in China. So whether I like it or not, I am a part of the consumer that buy all of these products and probably demand cheap prices (although I wouldn't call these pins cheap by any stretch of the imagination). Am I contributing to Disney's greed of increasing its profit margin by finding cheaper sources to produce all of these pins?

But the second problem impacts both Disney and the pin collectors/traders. It is my "evidence" that Disney cannot always monitor and control what and how things are done in China. One of the big problems in Disney pin collecting is fake/counterfeit/bogus/unauthorized Disney pins. Strangely enough, for serious pin collectors, the bogus pins are often easy to spot, and there are various fan websites that actually have a running list of such pins as they are discovered. What is more difficult is the unauthorized pins, or what some called "scrappers". These are pins that are never sold through Disney. They probably came from the same manufacturing process, and even probably in the same batch as authorized pins. But a manufacturer can easily produce more than required, and ship only the quantity that has been ordered. The extras are then sold to various "agents" and eventually, get to unsuspecting (or even suspecting) individuals. These eventually get into circulation via pin trading or other means. We certainly have been on the unsuspecting receiving end of this and have learned the hard way on how to spot such a thing. So it certainly has affected us and our pin collecting. However, it also affects Disney because these pins are sold by the bulk (on ebay) and then make it into circulation at their theme parks. It isn't easy to spot these scrappers and also other counterfeit pins unless you have a photographic memory of all the known fakes/scrapers and know what characteristics of the pin to look for. This doesn't consider those that are not known yet.

I had a huge shock one time when I bought the 2006 New Year Mickey Ears hat and found out that it was made in the good old USA! That was a first since I don't recall ever buying a Disney product made here. So it can be done! But I don't expect to see such a thing very often.

Zz.