ASTRA ups Marketplace’s safety info efforts
By Staff -- Playthings, 5/6/2008 2:15:00 PM
CHICAGO—There are many things notable about this year’s edition of the annual ASTRA Marketplace & Academy tradeshow, but one stand out is the focus on toy safety and the legal challenges the industry is facing across the nation.
Among the learning opportunities slated for the “Academy” portion of next month’s event will be a recently revised toy recall-oriented session that now will focus primarily on legislative issues impacting the toy industry. The panel discussion will include participation by Joan Lawrence, the Toy Industry Association’s vice president for standards and regulatory affairs, and representative specialty retailers and manufacturers from states with recent or pending changes to their toy safety standards.
The panel “should be an eye-opening experience for people” who’ve only paid peripheral attention to the impact recent or proposed legislation clamping down on the chemical composition of toys could have on their specialty toy stores’ ability to do business, said American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA) president Kathleen McHugh.
“We don’t want to scare anybody, but we do need people to take this seriously,” McHugh said of the impact legislative moves in 32 states could have on the overall U.S. toy business.
ASTRA's official position on toy legislation is that "national standards are preferable to a patchwork of inconsistent state regulations," according to the trade group's website.
Also on the schedule for this year's show will be a discussion focused on preparing retailers to deal with media questions about toy safety created in response to difficulties store owners reported having last year following the string of lead and magnet-related product recalls.
“We found there were a lot of retailers who had never faced negative questioning from reporters,” McHugh said. “We’ll be talking about how to handle it ... The whole industry should prepare for another round this holiday season.”
Other topics ASTRA panels will explore include efforts to tie into the growing consumer movement to “buy local,” and will offer materials that retailers can use “to start the conversation” with customers and other local merchants, McHugh added.
This year’s show, to be held June 22 though 25 at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn., promises to be the largest of the 16-year-old series. The event’s 250 booths—up from a record 175 last year—are “nearly sold out,” McHugh told Playthings.
For the first time, the show will be held jointly with the TGIFcon toy inventor conference.
