Rudolph’s gettin lazy

A New York Times article today reported that the Consumer Product Safety Commission ordered the recall of 4.2 million Aqua Dots in the U.S. on Wednesday evening. Apparently Aqua Dots is a Chinese-made toy that, when ingested, releases a chemical related to GHB (the date rape drug). This toy, which was voted Australia’s “Toy of the Year,” sent more than one child to the hospital in a shallow coma displaying seizure-like spasms.

My first thought when reading this was “how awful.” The next thing that came to mind was marveling at the fact that yet another toy was recalled after the disaster with Mattel this summer. I cringed as I scanned the article to see if it was Mattel again. Lucky for Mattel, it was some company called Moose Enterprises of Australia.

What I’m wondering is how this is going to affect toy sales. If you’ve looked outside your window or been shopping lately, you’ve probably seen holly, lights and mistletoe. Uh, apparently it’s Christmas…regardless of the fact that Christmas is two months away.

Another article in the New York Times today reported that stock markets plummeted recently and the dollars is now at an all-time low against the Euro. With gas prices as high as they are, some are worried this will affect consumer spending.

So, how do we pair these two things together? Christmas is obviously a huge time of year for toy sales, but if I were a parent, I’d be pretty apprehensive about buying toys right now. But if Americans aren’t making purchases, that just puts our economy worse off, too (that’s right, I took TWO econ classes in college).

Anyway, I don’t know if all these toy recalls will actually have an effect on consumer spending over the holidays, but it’s an interesting thing to think about. I don’t have kids and I’ll be in Italy, so really I’m just feelin the pains of the ever-worsening exchange rate.

If you have ideas or forecasts, let’s hear ‘em!

What do you think? Will Santa come this year?