Hasbro's Ethical position: Choice magazine

[Tiby]

I subscribe to Choice magazine and they did an article in the July 2008 edition regarding the ethical manufacture of toys. I have permission by Choice to post this article, which is copyright Choice. I thank them for letting me do so.

Hasbro features in the article.

[Pulse]

As if big companies like Hasbro could give a sh#t if they're paying their chinese factory workers peanuts while expecting them to keep pumping out toys around the clock...

[dirge]

I think Choice is to some extent barking up the wrong tree by applying the same standards to retailers & manufacturers - while (say) Hasbro has a great deal of control over manufacturing methods, (say) Target buys the toys from the manufacturer - a better measure of Target's performance would be its employment practices. It's not in a position to know what standards/conditions are like in the country of manufacture, compared to the manufacturer.

On a related note, with many of the manufacturers, the policies would be set by the overseas head offices (as they mentioned with TY), and in many cases their Australian presence would be little more than a supporting branch office.

Having said that, it's pleasing to see that Hasbro do take the matter seriously - even if they're not perfect. It's interesting (and saddening) to see that Mattel failed to respond, despite all the negative PR they received from their lead paint fiasco. Clearly Hasbro take this sort of thing far more seriously than Mattel do.

[Tiby]

We criticize Hasbro a lot, but I think this is a step in the right direction for them.

[Paulbot]

A very interesting article. Thanks for sharing. Every time I unwrap a twist tie I think about the workers who wrapped it and it's good to learn a bit more about Hasbro's factories.

[GoktimusPrime]

I'm also pleased to see that Hasbro's rating reasonably well there. Btw, I know that at least in Japan Thomas & Friends are manufactured by TakaraTOMY so I imagine that these toys would follow similar standards as Hasbro. I don't know of RC2's Thomas figures are also manufactured by Tomy or not.

[Kyle]

Lego is pretty good, as expected...

[liegeprime]

A very interesting article. Thanks for sharing. Every time I unwrap a twist tie I think about the workers who wrapped it and it's good to learn a bit more about Hasbro's factories.

I just cut the wires Paulbot, it makes it easier Hmmm makes you think now why we get all the defects in QC of Animated toys ... 80 hrs/week labor, sheesh and someone gets fined for being too much in the loo appalling work conditions.

[MV75]

I just cut the wires Paulbot, it makes it easier Hmmm makes you think now why we get all the defects in QC of Animated toys ... 80 hrs/week labor, sheesh and someone gets fined for being too much in the loo appalling work conditions.

That actually comes down to the people in charge of the actual factory. They get a certain amount of $ for a certain amount of figures. They then cut costs further on their side by doing stuff dodgy/cheap.

They could do all toys like the premium range as a standard, but don't because the factories then increase their bottom line.

I do wonder what is in the future though to toy prices and where they are manufactured when these countries catch up to us in their labour practices and conditions and pay due to constant "western interference". I see "cheap chinese labour" becoming "cheap african labour".
________
Simca vedette

[Pipesqueak]

I think Choice is to some extent barking up the wrong tree by applying the same standards to retailers & manufacturers - while (say) Hasbro has a great deal of control over manufacturing methods, (say) Target buys the toys from the manufacturer - a better measure of Target's performance would be its employment practices. It's not in a position to know what standards/conditions are like in the country of manufacture, compared to the manufacturer.

I think you're letting the retailers too easily off the hook there, Dirge. One of the best documentaries I've seen in recent years was about Walmart (I think I've posted about it here before). It showed how at their headquarters they have corridors full of negotiating rooms where they play manufacturers off against one another to make things for the lowest price, down to the last cent. A major theme of the doco was how manufacturers used to have all the control, deciding what they wanted to make and dumping their product on the retailers. Now the tide has completely turned, as the big retailers (Walmart, Target etc) tell the manufacturers exactly what product they want and how little they're prepared to pay for it. It was a most revealing and disturbing piece of filmmaking, showing that if workers are being exploited in countries like China, it's because the retailers have screwed down the profit margins of the manufacturers to next to nothing. It's also a big reason why the manufacturers moved to the third world in the first place.