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Recalls Prompt Salvation Army To Stop Selling Used Toys

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 7, 2007

Special Section: Toy Recalls

TAMPA - Salvation Army thrift stores across the nation were pulling used toys off their shelves Friday, culminating a tumultuous year that saw unprecedented recalls of toys deemed dangerous and possibly deadly to children.

Last week, Salvation Army volunteers in St. Petersburg inspected all the toys earmarked as Christmas gifts for needy children, checking them against the recall list.

In the past year, the U.S. government issued recall after recall, mostly for Chinese-made toys with lead paint or parts that could choke a child.

Salvation Army spokeswoman Dulcinea Cuellar on Friday morning said that the decision to pull almost all used toys from all the shelves in all the thrift stores in Florida "was so there is no confusion."

The Salvation Army has 59 thrift and family stores in Florida.

"Yes," she said, "it is going to be heartbreaking for somebody who cannot afford toys and who comes into our facilities looking for toys, but it is very much a safety issue for our clients and patrons and children, because we don't want them to get sick."

Maj. Kenneth Morris, who oversees 26 thrift stores in this part of the state, said, "This is going on across a number of states clear across the nation.

"We've had a number of concerns with recalls," he said. Rather than sort through all the toys, looking for lead-based paint or pieces that can break off and lodge in children's throats, the Salvation Army is getting out of the used toy business, at least for now. "We just do not want to take that chance."

Stores will still stock used bicycles, new toys and vintage boxed toys, he said.

"This will have an effect on our sales," Morris said, "but people's safety is more important than our sales."

Salvation Army officials are considering making the ban permanent, he said.

Getting rid of the toys also is a concern. He said he does not want children scouring through trash bins outside thrift stores, looking for discarded toys.

"We will be careful," Morris said. "They will be secured in bags and taken to local landfills."

Toys only account for about 5 percent of annual thrift store income, Cuellar said.

Some areas already had pulled toys, she said. Thrift stores in West Palm Beach stopped selling used toys about six weeks ago.

Lead-based paint has been the primary concern this year for toy buyers. It is banned in the United States but has been found this year in millions of Chinese-made toys.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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