Product Safety Statement, 2008

Safety is the first consideration we make when choosing items for our store. We have always considered both the safety of the children who will be using our toys and baby goods and the workers who manufacture them.

We feel that recent concerns over toy safety are production problems related mostly to the management of the toy companies and the choices they have made in order to reduce costs, rather than the specific country where those toys are made. The vast majority of toy companies have chosen China as the cheapest place to manufacture their toys, and thus the media has focused on China as the source of the problem. This simplification has distorted the issue and has made it very difficult for consumers to evaluate the safety of a toy. An unsafe toy can be made wherever a toymaker chooses to reduce quality in favor of profits.

At the same time, we don't feel that it would be honest to provide blanket assurances about the safety of all our toys. The truth is that we are not usually able to inspect factories or test paints. We must rely on our manufacturers. We have therefore always chosen to work with only the most reputable manufacturers who have a proven track record of safety and quality. We inspect new toys before we buy them, evaluating the quality of their materials and workmanship. Since we are a brick and mortar store, we are able to listen very closely to our customers and we discontinue buying from companies whose products receive negative feedback or are unable to provide us with satisfactory documentation of their testing procedures. We strongly believe that our evaluation processes ensure the safety of our toys.

We do sell toys made in China that offer safe and affordable choices. However, to help guarantee safety, we do not sell Chinese-made hard toys for babies where the primary mode of interaction with the toy will be oral. We also seek out quality European, American, Thai, and other manufacturers to provide alternatives to Chinese toys. These toys are usually, but not always, more expensive due to higher production costs. In most categories, we have many wonderful alternatives to Chinese toys.

Finally, we have always made sure that the country of origin of every toy we sell in our store and on our website is clearly labeled. We hope that this information will help guide your purchasing decisions.