While I certainly don't believe this is just Mattel's problem, this is an interesting article.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/09/07/toy_recalls_challenge_mattel_ceo/
The CEO's lauded strategy for pulling Mattel out of the doldrums and turning them back into a profitable, competitive company, seems to have involved closing down the last US plant and moving its entire production line overseas. ("Overseas" being a nice euphemism that could fool one into thoughts of European gnomes tinkering away in a Santa's workshop type environment... but uh, we all know now it just means: China) Mattel's argument has been that it owns a larger portion of its factories in China. This is oft-cited by other companies.. I recently got an email in my inbox from the company that makes Cranium, waxing eloquent about how it owns its Chinese factories and yadda yadda that makes for better product. Hmm. Apparently not.
Now, I don't follow the stock market, as our retirement plan consists of assuming the world is going to go to hell in a handbasket before we hit 65 anyway.... but apparently Mattel's stock has fallen about 10%. Only 10%????
I find the prospect of watching congressional hearings to be dreary, at best, but perhaps I'll at least buzz the news sites to catch the condensed version of "but.. but.. but..." that is sure to come out of this guy's mouth.
And again, I point out: WHAT ABOUT ALL THE TOYS ON THE SHELF ALREADY, BEFORE THE RECALL! It's not like the Chinese suddenly discovered lead in the last 3 months and quickly stuffed all the factories full of it. What is sitting RIGHT in our homes at this moment?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment