With all of the scary, scary news out there these days about toy recalls and toy safety issues, we thought it would be helpful to discuss with you how and where the toys we carry are made.
At Oliebollen.com, we use great care in choosing the toys we sell. Quality, safety, play-value, design, innovation, and goofiness are all key factors in our decision to carry any individual toy.
Ideally, we would love to carry only 100% organic toys made with zero environmental impact, produced by labor paid a living wage under working conditions that provide a decent quality of life. And we are always seeking new suppliers who are working toward such goals.
However, as most concerned parents are fully aware, few toy makers in the market today are anywhere near fulfilling these goals. Current tastes, market conditions, and a host of other factors allow cheap, mass-produced toys to reign. So what can we do?
At Oliebollen.com, we believe the best approach to this problem is to find and support companies we trust. So before we even consider a toy, we take a good look at the company behind it.
Like most consumers, we feel most comfortable with toys made in the USA and Europe because we are familiar with the labor and product safety laws and enforcement practices in these countries. However, we understand that it is
companies who make the toys, not countries. It is the companies who are responsible for adhering to our U.S. safety standards and inspecting their products prior to delivery. The fact that a supplier manufactures toys in Asia does not necessarily mean they produce a lesser product.
So we ask suppliers to tell us not only where the toys are made, but
how they are made.
Companies who readily supply this information and offer us their safety and environmental policies in writing rate the highest in our book. The ability to have direct communication with management of a toy company is key to this relationship. Accordingly, all of our suppliers are smaller, independent, specialty toy makers. And because they make toys in batches of hundreds or thousands – not millions, they are better able to monitor manufacturing and prevent distribution should a problem occur.
To assist consumers, we have compiled a document that lists of our main toy suppliers and what we know about them. We plan to update this document with new information as it becomes available. We encourage consumers to contact us with any additional information or questions, or to share personal experiences with a company's products or management.
Click
here to see information about individual toy companies.
Thank you very much for your interest in our products.
Margaret Schankler
CEO
Oliebollen.com
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