Products are being RECALLED because children are injured or DIE.

Please be aware that NOT every item you will getting delivered this holiday season may be safe-nor expect a RECALL notice from all the FREE SHIPPING SELLERS selling cheaper good manufactured by who knows is anyone’s guess in an Asian country with no strict safety laws.

Parents really must be cautious about ordering the CHEAPEST they can find on-line for their kids. Are you absolutely sure a cheaper version you found online with free shipping is not a knock off of a registered/ patent product with toxic materials?

Click HERE to follow Kids In Danger who works to improve children’s product safety.

As the founder and owner of Heart Felt Play Store I take great pride in selecting kid-favorite-theme items to play with that have educational benefits and safety just like I would consider the safety of my own grand children.

I wish that I could guarantee that no child will ever swallow a finger puppet of a bead in a DIY bracelet kit that I have sold from my retired businesses.

I hope parents take appropriate actions to keep small parts away from tots who put things in their mouths.

Part one:

When I owned Nancy’s Fancy and Heart Felt Play store I would not sell products to children under age 3…and…that is a huge challenge even when selling to parents who hold the credit cards! As an on-line retailer has no idea what age of child my product is going to.

• If you are purchasing things for children under age 3 who still put things in their mouths but locally in order to inspect a toy.
• When I owned my fun shops I personally opened bags /containers of a dozen or a gross of very cool stuff I know that kids will love. I’d get my daughters then later my grand daughter Sophi-Do-It to explore the store with her own 2 hands and eyes. Not every product made the final cut. *

Flash Back to the ’80’s

• Way back in the late 1980’s, when I took a break from being an RN, I owned Nancy’s Fancy in Iowa City, Iowa. I sold cake decorating supplies, novelty gifts and party favors for all ages…wink ..wink…
• One section of my shoppe was for kids who came in with a quarter in their pants pocket to buy something from my fish bowls. ( Heart Felt Play Store items that I sold on-line were much the same products, only the price has gone up.)

I had each and every fish bowl of goodies marked….

WARNING! Not intended for children under age 3.

I kept those small choking hazards on a higher shelf than a crawling baby can reach. Then I kept safer products in one area for the young tots that needed redirection away from small pieces parts… (Cake decorating requires many small parts not intended for children.)

• I have to tell you, tho’ I had an over abundance of WARNINGS! posted an alarming amount of moms would come in with wiggley toddlers whom I refused to sell to.

Say WHAT?!!!

Yep, I refused to sell choking hazards to mothers who did not read the WARNING! NOT for children under age 3!

Too many mothers would try to buy what they were attracted to at their eye level.

My brick and mortar shoppe was set up to be a relaxed and family friendly shopping experience. Feeling at home, with out even thinking, mommies would take the lid off of jar then hand a small toy to a 18 month old who put the small pieces part in their mouth!!!!

EEEEEK!

Mommies would approach the check out counter with a dollar bill in hand, “I want to buy this cute truck.”

The same truck with 13 small moving pieces that now dripping with slobber that was in the tot’s mouth!

“I’m sorry, I won’t sell that to you.” I would kindly respond. I had no choice but to throw a sales in the trash can.

“But you have to sell it me. My child loves it…. Look Bobby has spit all over it…. You have to sell it to me. But…but.. he wants it!”

Nope, the child was under age 3.

Well, I lost money on a slobbery trinket that ended up in the garbage.

• I would rather suffer the loss of a $1 than to suffer the loss of life a child whose mom simply needed to be carefully taught about safety.

My Nancy Nurse kicked in to do some preventative teaching. I would tell my story about the day I decided to become an RN. I had seen a toddler choking to death on a jaw breaker.

Flash back to 1965…

One day when I was teen I was walking around the town square in my home town. I saw a small child collaps…LIMP… BLUE…looked dead…a panic mother screamed “Help! My son is dying!”.

A by-stander grabbed that limp blue in the face child tipped him up side down then SMACKED him on the back….out flew that huge jaw breaker that was blocking the air way…all slobery and covered with the kid’s lunch…gross!

It all happend so fast…scarred the crap out of me.…My heart still beats from fear every time I re-tell the story. I sitll cry for the happy outcome.

…I had witnessed a life changing event. I think I was 13, 14 or 15 at the time. That was the day I knew I had to go to nursing school. Maybe one day I would need the knowledge to safe a life…in the future I did save more lives than I will ever know.

• Ya’ think I’m going to be selling a small parts choking hazadrd that will possibly choke a child to death?
• It can be a challenge to have those brightly colored small motor manipulatives in the house with a early child hood learning and a crawling baby.

You see all too many grown-ups who should know better are not being cautious enough with the safety of the small children around them.

BTW: I never lost a customer. I built trusting relationships. I intend to continue building trust.

Are the trending spinners safe?

Below is a quote from Kids in DANGER. Please, promise me you will read the entire article and share it with others. Click HERE to read

Toys are meant to provide joy and entertainment, yet many of them contain hidden hazards for children and they have been related to far too many injuries. However, toy safety has improved vastly over time. Toys had consistently been the top product type recalled by the CPSC, but in 2015 it was third (behind clothing and nursery products). There were 17 toy recalls involving over 370,000 units in 2015, which was a huge decrease from 62 recalls of over 17 million units back in 2006. Children can be hurt by unsafe toys in many ways, including falls, choking, strangulation, burns, drowning, and poisoning. Thankfully, of the 36 total injuries reported in 2015, none were attributed to toys.

Nancy Cowels, Director of Kids in Danger spoke on Good Morning America

• Are SPINNER safe? Good Morning America did a report. Click HERE to read.
• Note there are multiple manufacturing sources from all over the world. Many imported products are sold on the appealling looks or cheap prices rather than US safety standards.*
• Heart Felt Play Store has 6 SPINNERS in stock on a trial basis. They are being removed from the catalog, just in case. ( Note; Heart Felt Play Store retails fun stuff for kids that are not made in the US, but, are carefully selected from an established/ trusted *US supplier.)

As the owner of Heart Felt Play Store made greater efforts to promote kids safety…

• There is a frightening trend with current on-line purchases that may not meet US safety standards*
• Unique, Cute, Hand-crafted, “Trending” is NOT a guarantee the product is safe especially when it comes to having children involved.

While most merchandise sold on-line via Heart Felt Play Store is made in the Orient, everything is personally scrutinized by the owner for safety for children over the age of 3.*

Unfortunately, once the small play things for busy bags and small muscle manipulative are shipped out there is no way to stop a 1 year old from picking up a finger puppet left on the floor by an older sibling.

Mailing envelopes should state on the outside Contents Not for Children under age 3 plus a personal note to remind parents to keep kids safe.

No Non-cents Nanna encourages you to make good choices.

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part two...the rest of the story behind writing this post…

Heart Felt Play Store was a For Profit Business DAB under an old ein More & More owned by Malika Bourne. Due to several serious emergency medical issues, No Non-cents Nanna retired Heart Felt Play Stores are slowly edited , but, images will not be replaced.

I was approached to DROP SHIP when my store was still in business.

So many people are setting up shop on-line and making killing for doing nothing but installing some apps and occasionally checking the store website.

On-line orders are processed automatically then forwarded via inter net onto various outlets in the Orient where labor is cheap. The goods are then packaged and shipped here from over seas to the US.

Prices remain CHEAP due to the fact their is no overhead for drop-shippers.

First red flag!

“If you customer really wants the product at these low prices they will wait 6 to 8 weeks for delivery.”

Buyer beware!

A kid’s 7th birthday won;t wit 2 months. Kiddos with their heart set on dinosaurs or cowboy hats for their birthday won’t wait what seems like a life time for their choice of party themes…no ..no …no…

..but wait…I was again informed that I could make so much more money and not hardly lift a finger….

I had to make my list of the pro and cons.

Pro: I could make a lot of money!

Con: RED FLags

1. I liked creating my own imperfect -one-grandma operated store images. I don”t want to wait 2 months to hold a product in my hand to photograph…if I wanted to do so myself…
2. I loved checking out the product with my grand children…myself… check them out for safety with my own 2 eyes.
3. I LOVED sending Heart Felt Greetings messages that an order is on the way…I would lose the personal touch if I drop shipped.
4. I LOVED wrapping items in tissue paper and adding a sticker.. maybe even slipping in a little freebie…some fast packer with no personal attachment to my customers can’t take the time to do that…YIKES!

..if I skip that part I would miss out on providing the personal touch that I am so well known for…I may as well retire- I did retire. Heart Felt Play store closed a year ago and I am still edited blog posts on No Non-cents Nanna.

More emails came my way… including the regular emails I get from Kids In DANGER about RECALLS.

• Did you know that the US has many safety standards in place for safety issues? Tip overs; lead based paint; loose parts; batteries that catch on fire….or fall out…don’t meet fire retardant standard..
• The cheaply manufactured goods from many overseas companies do NOT share those safety standards we expect in the US…no one cares about each little kid who wants a dinoaur tail for their birthday.
• Overseas manufactures are now able to avoid the US safety standards by drop shipping under a on-line DBA by directly shipping from Tim-Bu-Tu or who knows where? No one really knows who is making what not so safe product by the time a drop ship order is opened in my opinion.

Heart Felt Play Store chose to not get into the Drop Ship Game

• some unknown manufacturers in a foreign country…
•  are ’employing’ unknown humans of what age?
• under ‘who knows what’ conditions?
• using ‘who knows what’ materials?
• to make products to sell to un-suspecting “rich Americans” who order on-line because the price is cheaper than the local brick and mortar stores…btw which are now going out business… while consumer let their thumbs do the walking for the cheapest price of t similar goods they just saw, felt, and smelled at the local retailer.

..and every one is happy?

..something is wrong in this picture!

As I explored further, I read questions and answers beside the “how long will my customers have to wait before their order is dropped shipped to their door?”

Of course is takes weeks to haul goods over the oceans then go through customers where no one really cares if the goods are child proof or not.. especially if a package is already addressed to an American home.

I read another concern from a potential drop shipper who did not want the customer to know that the goods came through a drop ship jobber… “No problem! The order can have the US DBA label on it…..”

 Who Nelly! Why the secrecy!

I have never made it a secret that I sold goods ( other than my hand-crafted) with labels Made in China-manufactured for OTC that were already in an American warehouse.

Back in the ’80’s I used Oriental Trading as my whole sale supplier. I bought in the large quantities. Most families don’t want a gross of one thing. I love counting out small quantities then repackage. Of course I price the goods to make a small profit.

I still buy my stores collections wholesale from Oriental Trading. In fact if a customer want a larger quantity then I want to have on hand in my home office, I honestly tell them to go buy from my supplier.

There is huge safety factor built in by using Oriental Trading; they are a family owned Mid-West company who has been in business for 80 years! OTC stands by their merchandise.

Safety Plan in Place:

I have no question, IF ever there is a product with a safety issue they know that I purchased wholesale from them. OTC will inform every customer, like myself, of that problem…with that said, my on-line business is managed well enough that I can immediately notify any customers of a product problem. IF a customer were to contact me with a safety concern I would have been able to report to the proper wholesaler…you can’t do that if you don’t know where it came from?

I am feeling frightful goose bumps …for customers who buy the cheapest from the inter-net…they really don’t know what the price their children may pay for lack of safety…think about it. I did before I retired my business.

That is why No Non-cents Nanna’s Heart Felt Play Store had shipped directly from my home business in Colorado via USPS from my limited stock, to my wonderful customers.( My product may be a little more pricey than the other internet shops.)

One last point. to wrap this up with a heartfelt bow…

Heart Felt Play Store had offered a small niche of items for sale that most retailers find non profitable to carry unless done so in bulk at limited times. You can’t just find everything in what ever kid favorite theme you want when you need it in a local shop every day of the year – plan ahead and make good choices by supporting your local small business as often as you can before ordering on-line.

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