Many of you have probably heard of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). This is a law that was enacted by Congress last year in response to all of the recalled toys from China. Most of these recalled toys contained lead. Well, in theory, this law is GREAT. It protects our children and who wouldn’t want that!
In practice, this law is not well written and is causing a lot of heart-ache for small businesses. The testing that is required by this law will force many small businesses to have to close their doors. There is a mandate right now before Senator Waxman asking to have the enforcement of this law postponed so that it can be better formulated to protect our children without forcing thousands and thousands of small businesses to close their doors. All new products produced that are aimed at children under the age of 12 will be compliant with this law and the required testing. This law goes into effect on February 10, 2009 (unless there is a postponement).
How does this effect you? Right now, you can benefit tremendously by taking advantage of sales on items that will need to be tested. Do these items contain high levels of lead? Most likely not. Many of them don’t even contain any parts that have lead in them. Why are they on sale? Because the testing is too expensive as each individual item would need to be tested. You can find sales everywhere – at major department stores and on-line. Most of the products that we carry in our Boutique Store are not affected by this new legislation because they are targeted at moms, not children. But we do have a few items which will need to be tested. Since we do not manufacture these items, we are relying on our suppliers to test the items that they manufacture. But we still have items in inventory that need to be tested. So – from now until Feb 8, 2009, we are having a HUGE SALE! All of our baby slings, burp cloths and baby shirts are marked down to never-before-seen prices!
Take advantage of the sales (here and elsewhere) to get some items that you really want but didn’t want to pay full price for. These sales will only last until our inventory is gone and end on Feb 8, 2009.
Want to help Small Businesses by getting congress to take another look at this law and it’s potential implications? There are many ways to get involved. Here are some links to sites where you can sign petitions and get information about contacting your local senator.
Change.org
Toy Association.org
iPetitions
CPSIA Central on Ning
