I don’t have kids, so I don’t know much about toys. but to add to the discussion about the upcoming shortage of Christmas toys, picture this —
Popular toy cost $20, and everybody knows it. Now, because of the sudden crisis in the world of logistics, it cost 10 times as much to transport a crate of $20 toys from China to Long Beach, it cost five times as much to transport the crate of toys by truck or train from California to any spot in the rest of the country… And that’s if you can get a truck or train transport contract in the first place, because there is a shortage of drivers and fuel prices are higher.
Considering all these factors together, it is not the least bit beyond imagination to find that, in order to actually make a profit like they did two years ago, stores need to charge now 80, 90, $100 for that $20 toy.
This is the new economic level for low cost goods from China. and while I am not a parent, I find it hard to believe that any parent in America would pay $100 for that $20 toy. if my kid wanted the toy that badly, I would decide he had been overindulged in his life, and begin to apply some discipline 🙂
The more natural result will be that nobody buys the toy, and the retailers can see this coming a mile away, and so they won’t be stocking the $20 toy to try to sell it for $100.
So the toy instead will disappear from store shelves.