Oldest toy shop in Los Angeles fights against tariffs

Oldest toy shop in Los Angeles fights against tariffs

Kip’s Toyland has been selling toys to children in Los Angeles for almost 80 years, and through wars, recessions and pandemics. But now threaten tariffs of 145 % in most Chinese imports Rel = "NOFOLLOW" TARGET = "_ blank" https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/12/economy/toy-prices-china-tatiffs "> Almost 80 % of the toys sold in the USA are manufactured in China.

supply chains and challenges

"We receive letters and other communications from our suppliers in which it says: 'Shake yourself, that comes to us,'," said Don Kipper, the business owner. In the letters that the Kipper CNN read, the suppliers announced price increases and rental to large orders before the customs prices come into force.

This is another sign that President Donald Trump's turbulent trade war - as well as the countermeasures of China - put the American toy industry into turmoil. According to data from the US Ministry of Trade, the United States imported toys worth around $ 13.4 billion from China last year, not least because of the infrastructure for toy production, which has been created and strengthened there in the past 25 years.

price increases and their influence

For tipper, the most of which comes from China, the tariffs inevitably mean increasing prices - and it is not sure how to deal with it. He explained that a small company like his could not afford to invest large stocks, and was also unable to provide a lot of storage space for inventory. Other suppliers informed tippers that they would set their production lines that should have given the toys for holiday sales in the United States.

"Please know that this decision was not made lightly," read Kipper from one of the letters and looked up. "Nobody is happy about it."

a dream realization after the war

Kip’s Toyland was founded by Irvin "Kip" tipper, Don Kipper's father, who was a pilot during the Second World War. Tipper said that after his plane was shot down in Bologna, Italy, his father was captured and brought to Germany as a Nazi prisoner of war. Kipper said his father "decided that, if he is ever free, he wants to do something happy with the rest of his life."

almost a year later, in August 1945, the older tipper was freed from George Patton's troops. In October of the same year he bought a small business where flags and dolls were sold - the beginning of Kip’s Toyland in Los Angeles. "When he opened the business, there were very few toy transactions," reported Don Kipper. "Toys were sold in hardware stores and department stores. There were no independent toy transactions."

changes in the production landscape

In the same year, the first Slinkys were sold in the USA. They were manufactured in Pennsylvania and will continue to be produced there. The Slinky is one of the few products that are still manufactured in the USA and which are sold at KIP’s Toyland. The majority of the articles in the shop are now

The lower labor costs in China have led to a comprehensive infrastructure for toy production there in recent decades, Chris Byrne, an independent toy analyst, told CNN. Bringing this infrastructure back to the USA is not impossible, but would take at least five years, Byrne said. Even then, the prices would increase in the USA due to the work and regulatory costs.

tipper is aware that his business could have difficulty. Nevertheless, he still expects that a parent will come in here and there to get a last-minute birthday. Apart from the hope that customers will continue to buy, his only strategy is to "buy intelligently" and to choose inexpensive toys that people can still afford. But if the classic toys at KIP’s Toyland suddenly to be more expensive to obtain

"It is a hostage situation. If we have to, we have to," he said.