Mattel kneels before its Chinese masters

If there is one thing we’ve learned the past several years it’s this – low prices trump death by lead poisoning.

Without China’s willingness to screw over its own people and use substandard products, the simple fact is that Americans could conceivably pay more for their Malibu Barbie Super Funhouse. And this is just unacceptable.

“I think people should be careful what they wish for on China. Ya know, if China were to revalue it’s currency or China is to start making say, toys that don’t have lead in them or food that isn’t poisonous, their costs of production are going to go up and that means prices at Wal-Mart here in the United States are going to go up too. So, I would say China is our greatest friend right now, they’re keeping prices low and they’re keeping the prices for mortgages low, too,” said CNBC’s Erin Burnett.

Sadly, Mattel didn’t get the “China is our best friend” memo soon enough. So now, it’s time for them to kneel and beg for forgiveness from our Chinese masters of low prices. This should teach them to stop this recall nonsense.

“Mattel apologizes to China for toy recalls”

BEIJING (Reuters) – The world’s largest toy maker, Mattel Inc, apologized on Friday for damaging China’s reputation after recent massive recalls of its Chinese-made toys, admitting it targeted some goods that were actually up to scratch.

Mattel has come under scrutiny following the recall of about 21 million of the toys in a span of five weeks, many because of excessive levels of lead paint.

“Our reputation has been damaged lately by these recalls,” Thomas Debrowski, Mattel’s executive vice president of worldwide operations, told China’s quality watchdog chief, Li Changjiang, in the Chinese capital.

“Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people and all of our customers who received the toys.”

Debrowski said he realized the damage that had been done to the reputation of Chinese goods, adding the company was committed to manufacturing in China.

“But it’s important for everyone to understand that the vast majority of those products that we recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel’s design, not through a manufacturing flaw in Chinese manufacturers.”

Debrowski, who sat stony-faced throughout the meeting with Li, did not talk afterwards to reporters, whom the quality regulator had invited to witness most of the meeting, unusual for a normally secretive Chinese government agency.

Li told Debrowski of his displeasure at the admission that perhaps too many toys had been targeted.

“You cannot recall 10,000 products just because one is substandard. This is unacceptable,” he said.

Now, go over to Wal-Mart and buy something. It’s the American way.

–WKW

Save