A consumer advocate Mitch Lipka has alerted Target and the public about cheap Chinese-made flashlights being sold for Halloween. The devices sold for three for a dollar appear to succeed in not just lighting up the night but the children holding them.
Target has withdrawn the item from its shelves, which were imported by Devrian Global Industries. What I fail to understand is how neither Target nor Devrian could spot such a defect before distributing it to 1,684 stores in 48 states.
The flashlights were being sold in the “See. Spot. Save.” section of Target. Target says that the devices were tested before being sent to stores.
Target withdrew the item the same week that it paid a huge fine for violating the ban on lead paint in toys.
For the full story, click here.
However, you juss gotta luv them China Dolls (and that steel guitar with Slim’s high-lonesome voice)
I’d rather have a doll of clay
That I could call my own
Than someone else just like you
With a heart of stone
She’ll never lea-eave me
She’ll not decei-eive me
And never grie-ieve me
My china doll
China and the US have a mutually parasitic relationship. We buy their cheap junk, they lend us money (so we can keep buying their junk).
I refuse to by anything from China. I am especially vigilant with any toys and pet products. One good way to not buy Chinese products is to stay away from Wal Mart.
bet the packaging cost more than the contents
Mike S,
“When you have a faux communist country turn fascist and building an industrial base base on little more than slave labor, the manufacturing employees have little incentive to produce quality work.”
Yes, and everyone note that they are dangerous to our financial well being in several ways. They are in cahoots with the Arab nations, and other nations, to do the dollar and our economy harm.
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/10/phase-four-of-currency-wars.html
My kid had his 4th b-day this weekend. He was flooded in Chinese plastic. Depressing. I need to learn how to widdle wooden toys. And Mr. Spindell is right on point. I see no difference between the Chinese oligopoly ond the Russian, which supoosedly is no longer Marxist. Currupt billionaires run the world, China not excepted.
When you have a faux communist country turn fascist and building an industrial base base on little more than slave labor, the manufacturing employees have little incentive to produce quality work. More at fault beyond that though, is the rise of rapacious business moguls, who view the bottom line as justification for any excess. That some of them get executed in show trials is just for them the risk of doing business. When I think of all the dedicated Maoists I used to know and the nonsense they spouted, it heartens me to know that I saw through their crap at a younger, more naive time in my life. That the US is mortgaged to this travesty of a country, is one more sign that our Corporatist leaders care only for their own bottom lines.
It’s not just Target. A few years back, I bought some Rayovac (so-called) “industrial” flashlights for emergency use at work–to place in people’s desks in case of power failure. The same thing happened: insert batteries, and flashlights (ALL of them) got very hot.
Upon examination, it was obvious why this happened: the construction of the flashlight resulted in shorting out of any batteries inserted. Fortunately, I discovered this before any desks ignited. I alerted vendor, and Rayovac, and CPSC (?) but no one seemed to care. My impression was that I should expect such things. Good luck finding any good flashlights, without resorting to MagLite versions.
Even though all possible cost-cutting mods have already been taken, manufacturers just keep making things even cheaper, until the items no longer perform their functions. Rayovac is a case in point, but not unique.
Fortunately, Target still has plenty of Mainway Latex Corporation’s children’s Invisible Pedestrian costumes available.
Burn Baby Burn, I guess Target has a lesson leaned. Humm, but will they end up on Ebay?