Consumers ultimately decide quality

Published Friday, August 3, 2007

Toy-maker Fisher-Price’s highly publicized recall of toys this week — 83 different products that had been colored with paint that contains lead — demonstrated again the adage that you get what you pay for. In this case, Americans — or American companies — buying toys from the lowest-cost supplier found out once again that there are many things that keep prices down, and quality is seldom one of them.

In this case, of course, the Chinese-made toys created potential problems worse than low-quality. They are an absolute health danger to children because of lead’s toxic effect on developing brains and nervous systems.

Fisher-Price is not really to be blamed for the problem — or, at any rate, comes in for only a small share. The real driver of this situation is Americans’ demand for the lowest possible prices in everything they purchase. We are a country where quality — and now, it appears, safety — have taken a back seat to price. The companies that have moved their manufacturing to places where manufacturing is inexpensive are only doing what they must to prosper or survive in a market where price seems to be everything.

One reality of a market-driven economy is that buyers ultimately determine what they will get. This week’s toy incident — and a similar case in June, not to mention instances of contaminated toothpaste — demonstrate that there may be a time and a place for everything, even quality. Perhaps it would have been better, after all, to make toys in a higher-wage country, such as the United States, where controls over ingredients and methods are better.

That, at any rate, seems to be what American companies are learning now. The only question will be whether the market helps drive that lesson home.