I am sure everyone heard about this recently I am sure you can all guess what my opinion of this is.
The fact is several of my family members have been directly affected by Fisher Price (and other companies) out sourcing to China and Mexico.
I just heard that the boss in China killed himself at the factory over the weekend.
(Edited for taste.)
link…
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/08/13/china.toymaker.ap/index.html
One down 1.? billion more to go.
ib4LXTASY
^I dont think he makes outsourcing decisions but I would love to hear from him on this matter.
I really doubt this was a suicide. The guy was probably ready to tell the world how everything coming out of China is full of lead, or asbestos, or poison and the Chinese government killed him. The goverment or Walmart.
Dude outsourcing totally saves my company millions, how do you think I pay for my rare endangered albino whale eggs? Shit man them eggs run like 1.5 million on the black market, and you know I need at least two a morning or I’m grumpy all day.
[quote=“JayS,post:4,topic:33815"”]
The (Chinese) goverment or Walmart.
[/quote]
Isn’t that sort of redundant? 
I’m here, although I’m not sure what you want to hear from me. I’m human just like you and am not happy to hear news like this. These products are our licensed products that are based out of the offices in NYC. While it carries the FP name, they are the babies of Mattel being that Mattel now owns FP. True Fisher-Price products are designed in East Aurora and built in China.
It’s true that it’s a shame that this has happenend…however the only thing that could have saved this is if FP had someone hired to sit at every factory we deal with in China and keep a watchful eye on what they produce. By no means is this a practice that we condone, FP standards for safety and integrity are TWICE AS STRONG as government standards. There’s a reason why we’ve been around for 75+ years…
If you have such ill feeling towards FP for using China as a resource then you may want to look a little harder at every other product and company that you own products of. FP is not the only complany dealing with China, they just happen to be big enough to be recieving media attention.
The people here at FP and Mattel are honest people. No one here would ever knowingly compromise a product. I hope you’d consider taking back your wishes about the FP bosses committing suicide…that’s quite a tasteless comment to make.
I’d like to know how you and your family have been affected by this.
I do take it back, it was just a joke but it was also tasteless.
I know Fisher-Price is not the only company that is why I said in my first post (and other companies).
If you have ever seen any of my posts about China this one should not shock you.
Growing up in EA(home of FP) and in the manufacturing industry you can probably guess how my family and friends have been affected.
Although in all fairness I am not sure if you know anything about manufacturing.
Money is FP’s first priority and anyone who thinks differently is naive.
They certainly didn’t go to china to be more safe.
My family has made parts for them and if they say for one second that they believed that a Chinese company was going to meet their demands(enviro, safety, etc) they are TOTAL liars or they are TOTALLY retarded.(PERIOD)
I am not going on general hate China rant right now but, I will say, China considers itself at war with the US and companies like FP are helping them win.
[quote=“AWDrifter,post:8,topic:33815"”]
China considers itself at war with the US and companies like FP are helping them win.
[/quote]
What does that mean?
^ I am not going to explain our relationship with China and all of the underhanded things they do to hurt the US, it would take many pages of typing.
Do a GOOGLE search on China and WTO and you may get what I am talking about.
[quote=“AWDrifter,post:8,topic:33815"”]
I do take it back, it was just a joke but it was also tasteless.
I know Fisher-Price is not the only company that is why I said in my first post (and other companies).
If you have ever seen any of my posts about China this one should not shock you.
Growing up in EA(home of FP) and in the manufacturing industry you can probably guess how my family and friends have been affected.
Although in all fairness I am not sure if you know anything about manufacturing.
Money is FP’s first priority and anyone who thinks differently is naive.
They certainly didn’t go to china to be more safe.
My family has made parts for them and if they say for one second that they believed that a Chinese company was going to meet their demands(enviro, safety, etc) they are TOTAL liars or they are TOTALLY retarded.(PERIOD)
I am not going on general hate China rant right now but, I will say, China considers itself at war with the US and companies like FP are helping them win.
[/quote]
First of all, I think you and I have a similar attitude towards China. I guess I could be called a hypocrit for working here…
Anyway, I can only guess that your family lost wages from FP due to them moving their operations to China. This sucks, but since our society wants more for less many companies are forced to go out of the country for cheap labor, or else the business may fail:(
In the grand scheme of things, I’d say FP has done very well with keeping an eye on China. We sell millions of toys year after year…this doesn’t happen all that often.
To sum it up for me, this is yet another incident of many incidents with Chinese manufacturing in American consumerism that has left me with a bad taste. I often wonder how much longer we can rely on the Chinese manufacturing process before it comes back and bites us hard in the ass…
We all need to work somewhere, I don’t blame you personally.
I don’t even totally blame any one company.
In the past I have said we(The US) need a cultural change for anything to really change economically.
Mothers are very powerful consumers and they have spoken on this issue.
Mothers have said (since this incident occurred) that they will look for toys made in the USA/Canada or Europe.
[quote=“LXTASY,post:7,topic:33815"”]
The people here at FP and Mattel are honest people. No one here would ever knowingly compromise a product.
[/quote]
With my short time working at Fisher-Price… i can definitely attest to that.
[quote=“AWDrifter,post:12,topic:33815"”]
We all need to work somewhere, I don’t blame you personally.
I don’t even totally blame any one company.
In the past I have said we(The US) need a cultural change for anything to really change economically.
[/quote]
Agreed. In a wierd little way MOST of the people that may get upset with Chinese made parts should really point a finger at themselves…for they may be a part of the population who has ‘forced’ US companies to look elsewhere for cheaper manufacturing???
I do openly blame companies like WALMART that move into little towns like Springville and dump all of their Chinese garbage on people with “preditory pricing”.
[quote=“AWDrifter,post:12,topic:33815"”]
Mothers are very powerful consumers and they have spoken on this issue.
Mothers have said (since this incident occurred) that they will look for toys made in the USA/Canada or Europe.
[/quote]
Just noticed this quote…for it is VERY contradictory. We test moms all the time here. We bring in moms to talk to us about what they look for in a product. We conduct national surveys as well. What we find is that they want a product that does everything under the sun for as little price as possible. In order to give them what they want, we have to outsource. If we were to make the quality of product here in the US I can guarantee you that a very small percentage of those moms would pony up and pay for a US made product.
Those moms who have ‘spoken’ represent the consumers who are just as much part of the problem.
[quote=“AWDrifter,post:15,topic:33815"”]
I do openly blame companies like WALMART that move into little towns like Springville and dump all of their Chinese garbage on people with “preditory pricing”.
[/quote]
Walmart is a whole nother issue in itself…I can’t express how much I dislike this company.
True(post#16) but, I think this latest incident was a reality check and now (hopefully) maybe they realize that their kids health and safety is worth a couple more dollars.
OR maybe their kid doesn’t need all the “bells and whistles”.
This is what I mean by cultural change.
[quote=“AWDrifter,post:18,topic:33815"”]
True(post#16) but, I think this latest incident was a reality check and now (hopefully) maybe they realize that their kids health and safety is worth a couple more dollars.
OR maybe their kid doesn’t need all the “bells and whistles”.
This is what I mean by cultural change.
[/quote]
Without disclosing too much information I can assure you that there is a great awareness in this company to that matter of ‘bells and whistles’ (and this is before the paint issue).
And, I greatly agree with cultural change…part of me wants to have kids just so I can teach them common sense, respect, let them play with bb guns, skin their knees by falling off bikes, get spanked, etc…
United States will never be a manufacturing based economy again if you ask me. We live in a global economy now, and I don’t see that changing.
The most that can be done now is the employ standards in overseas manufacturing to ensure that the products coming over are quality and clean.