Jay Foreman, CEO, Basic Fun!:
Well, it’s — we have been affected on a number of different levels. Initially, we were affected just from the fact that at 145 percent, it was a de facto embargo, so we stopped producing and stopped shipping.
Now that the tariffs have come down to about 30 percent, the flow of goods is happening, and it’s just a question of, where is the tariff going to be absorbed? It’s not just by toy makers. It’s by any importers in any industry.
So, typically, what you’re seeing and what we’re seeing and experiencing is a shared impact, where we are absorbing a bit of it, the retailer is absorbing a bit of it, and some of it is being passed along to the consumer. You’re not feeling it, and the consumer is not feeling it today, but most likely in the last four months of the year, September, October, November, for sure there is a price to pay.
Now, if it’s not in higher prices and categories, it’s likely in lower profits or lower sales for corporations. Nothing is free. Tariffs aren’t free. They don’t come at zero cost. Somebody pays the cost. We’re just going to find out in the fourth quarter who is going to end up paying that cost.
