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At 61%, business is the most trusted institution, ahead of NGOs at 59%,government at 52% and media at only 50%. Seventy-seven percent ofrespondents, however, trust “My Employer,” making the relationshipbetween employer and employee incredibly important. The Trust 10, edelman “Good luck is what is left over after intelligence and effort have combined at their best,” said … [Read more...] about Quotes with Your Coffee #11: Business Is the Most Trusted Instituion, Pinduoduo Opens in US to Compete with Amazon, Target Drops Mandatory Retirement Age, and Some Thoughts on Luck

Click here to listen to this episode Richard and Chris have a lively chat with Kim Carcone, EVP of the Toy Association about the current state of Toy Fair, the upcoming Dallas show, what’s ahead for 2023, and new initiatives to make the show more useful and relevant than ever. The Playground Podcast is supported by Global Toy Experts, The Toy Guy and Beacon Media … [Read more...] about Update on Toy Fairs: Kim Carcone of the Toy Association

Others I have spoken with indicate a darker reason for moving out of China – the threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan and the subsequent shutdown of trade between China and the west. Information in the toy industry flows on two levels. There is information to be found in our industry magazines and social networks, and there are communications that we share in … [Read more...] about The Future of China and the Toy Industry; it’s time to talk about it

Ominous Warnings About a Potential UPS Strike The Disruption Report has, until now, focused on the ongoing labor negotiations between the dock workers and the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. That may be small potatoes compared to the potential for a major strike by the Teamsters Union against UPS. CNN headlines its article with this doom-filled header: “One of the … [Read more...] about Disruption Report #62 – UPS Strike Looking Likely, Cost of Shipping from China Down 60%, New Container Ships Are Arriving and Boosting Ocean Freight Capacity

DataMan electronic toy, 1978. The Strong, Rochester, NY I was a math kid, one who enjoyed solving simple problems of multiplication and division, arithmetic and subtraction. For many years my favorite toy was DataMan, a calculator themed as a space hero that was created in the late 1970s by Texas Instruments, the same company that introduced not only the portable calculator … [Read more...] about Playing with Primes

In 1966, Topper Toys introduced the Suzy Homemaker line of toy appliances. The line included kid-sized working versions of various household conveniences of the day, including a washer-dryer, iron and ironing board, vacuum cleaner, and mini oven. In subsequent years, the company released even more Suzy Homemaker appliances, including a blender, grill, high-speed mixer, and … [Read more...] about Just Like Mom & Dad: The Suzy Homemaker Super Safety Oven from Topper Toys

Newsweek published its “America’s Best Retailers 2022.” The magazine commissioned Statista to do a poll to determine the best bricks and mortar retailers in America. One hundred ninety-five retailers made the list. Their achievement was based on whether the respondent would recommend the retailer to friends and family, price, assortment, and environment. I culled the list … [Read more...] about Newsweek’s “America’s Best Retailers 2022” – What toy and toy related retailers made the list

When offshoring methodically disemboweled the Rust Belt, white-collar Americans thrived, …safe in the knowledge that their jobs could not be outsourced easily to cheap foreign rivals. Now, some economists say the remote-work revolution may have changed that almost overnight.“If you can do your job from home, be scared. Be very scared,” Richard Baldwin, an economist at the … [Read more...] about Quotes with Your Coffee #10 – Workers demand $20 an hour, Offshoring a threat to white collar workers who work from home, Las Vegas on a winning streak

Global Toy Experts will be in Dallas from September 20 through 22 to discuss M&A opportunities, market expansion, and whatever else is on your mind. To set a meeting, contact: Steve Velte steve@globaltoyexperts.com Richard Gottlieb richard@globaltoyexperts.com … [Read more...] about Set Your Dallas Holiday Market Appointment with Global Toy Experts

The 2023 Nuremberg Toy Show (the Spielwarenmesse) will take place February 1 – 5, 2023. Composed of seventeen buildings showing a million unique toys, the Spielwarenmesse is by far the world’s largest toy show. The Spielwarenmesse in figures* 2,843 exhibitors from 70 countries62,357 visitors from 136 countries1 million products120,000 new productsThe 2023 show will be … [Read more...] about The 2023 Nuremberg Toy Fair, a must-attend event (ad)