Whimsical Walney Closing Its Doors Because of CPSIA
[This is another in a series of posts by Susan Maphis covering the impact of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). For more information about the CPSIA, read Susan's previous article: The End Of Handmade and sign up for her CPSIA Alerts Mailing List ]
The CPSIA is already having dire consequences for businesses. Dana Lardner, owner of Whimsical Walney, Inc. is closing her business effective February 10.
Whimsical Walney was started in 2004 and designs products to “let children play,” a theme found throughout the website. Items such as outdoor blankets to keep children safe from the sun, books, and clothing that teaches children new words are all sold at Whimsical Walney. The products promote imagination.
Lardner feels that she has no choice but to close Whimsical Walney as a result of the impending CPSIA enactment. “I have decided to close my doors, because in 2009, I was not only going to rework some of my existing products, but also introduce some new products into the market, all of which would be targeted at children under 12,” she explains. “My plan was to sell off existing inventory and then discontinue several products in order to continue to focus my business and build my brand. It is therefore cost-prohibitive not only to test something that I don’t intend to continue selling, but also to test yet-to-be-released products whose acceptance in the market is unknown.”
She hopes to be able to re-open her business one day. “I am hoping the CPSIA dust will settle and that Whimsical Walney will be able to open its doors again to foster a child’s language development and imagination,” Lardner says. “We will always seek to promote play!” She urges concerned citizens to keep contacting their Congressmen and keep the CPSIA issue alive within their communities.
WhimsicalWalney.com is currently having a site-wide sale, due to the upcoming closure of the business. Everything on the site is half-price, with a $5 flat shipping rate in the U.S. Check out these great bargains before it’s too late!
[ For more information about the CPSIA, read Susan's previous article: The End Of Handmade]
This is so sad! More people need to know about it. We are having a Amend the CPSIA blog-in today. So far 300+ bloggers have signed up to help get the word out.
January 28th, 2009 at 3:13 pm[...] making baby booties or all-natural wooden toys. It’s put people out of business. (See this, this and [...]
July 15th, 2009 at 9:23 am