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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)

There has been a great deal of fluctuation in ocean freight rates over the last few months. Thankfully, most of it has been down. We wanted to know what most companies were paying for a 40 foot container from Asia to the U.S. west coast. Below are the results: As you can see from the above graph, 46% of the companies surveyed are paying between $7,000 and $9,000. I don’t … [Read more...] about Results: Toy Industry Freight Survey

Released in 1969 by Whitman Publishing, Humor Rumor was an over-the-top take on “The Telephone Game.” Both classic ice-breaking party activities, these games focus on how information is inevitably changed as it is passed from person to person. Humor Rumor included two 45-card decks, a pair of large ruby-red plastic lips, a giant plastic ear, and a long cardboard tube (dubbed … [Read more...] about Pssst, pass it on: Humor Rumor from Whitman Publishing

In 1957, Screen Gems bundled together pre-1948 classic horror films from Universal Studios and released the package for syndicated television. Marketed as “Shock Theater,” the films included Frankenstein, Dracula, The Invisible Ray, Werewolf of London, and The Wolf Man, among others. The films usually aired on late night television, but many children snuck into their living … [Read more...] about Strong National Museum of Play Artifact of the Month – Monster Old Maid

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the water, it’s ‘throwback to 2021’ time, as supply chain disruption is firmly back on the agenda once more. The potential impact of this week’s strike at the port of Felixstowe – the UK’s largest container port, which deals with around half of the UK’s standard-size container traffic – has been likened to the Ever Given getting … [Read more...] about Everyone wants a happy ending ……it’s the Friday Blog!

A measure of US profit margins has reached its widest since 1950, suggesting that the prices charged by businesses are outpacing their increased costs for production and labor. US Corporate Profits Soar With Margins at Widest Since 1950, Reade pickert, bloomberg, august 25, 2022 Chinese makers of everything from Christmas decor to clothing and tents say orders from overseas … [Read more...] about Quotes With Your Coffee #9 – Corporate Profits Soar, Most Profitable Quarter in 50 years

Barbie is hot. Not just with little girls and not only with their moms. She is hot on Wall Street. Consider these headlines: How The Barbie Movie Is Changing Mattel’s Business – CNBC, August 23, 2022 Why Barbie Fashion Is the Exhilarating Trend We Need Right Now, Wall Street Journal, August 20, 2022 The ‘Barbie’ Movie Is Coming. So Is the Trend of Dressing Like Ken, … [Read more...] about “Barbiecore,” “Kencore,” and Barbie on the Rise