We currently have received certification from one vendor (about 10 products) which means that we have been forced to discontinue 1ooo products that we currently don’t have in stock to avoid breaking the law after February 10th. We currently have about 600 different kid’s items in stock that are discounted and won’t be available after February 10th unless we get more certificates from vendors.
The upshot of this? The First Communion season (February – May) is usually the second busiest season of the year for Catholic retailers. This year, unless our vendors get their acts together, it will be the worst season ever because there won’t be any First Communion dresses, kid’s missals, kid’s rosaries, etc. available for purchase.
I wonder how many Catholic retailers that are currently on the edge this will put over into failure? Knowing our industry it is quite likely that many, in spite of our contacting them, will continue operating as if the law doesn’t exist. At least until they get fined out of existence.
Anyway, stock up on First Communion and other kid’s items now because they may not be available next month.
Tags: consumer product safety improvement act, CPSIA
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The CPSIA testing requirement is unreasonable.
Product testing as specified by CPSIA requires separate testing of each of the component parts of a children’s product. Yet the language of the law does not permit testing of the separate components before assembly to qualify as testing of the product.
This is inherently illogical, unreasonable, and unsupportable. The public does not benefit from this requirement. Public safety is not improved. But laboratory income is increased.
Given that each separate test incurs significant cost, one wonders whether the authors and sponsors of the bill receive direct or indirect benefit from the few labs included on the short list of accredited testing laboratories.
If your store is concerned about having a lean inventory, then perhaps a more serious investigation into the unfairness of the CPSIA testing requirements is in order – and by all means you should be writing to your congressman/woman to let them know the effect this is going to have on your business. This is a huge problem for manufacturers and vendors of children’s products. Please inform your congresspeople that the CPSIA requirements MUST be re-written now.
Also, please note that the CPSC has voted a 1 year extension for compliance into place. So do NOT destroy your inventory yet! Please follow the link below for the official release.
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09115.html