Ever since the start of industrial revolution and ever since standards have been placed on products concerning safety, there have been product recalls. Product recalls are something that will most likely happen to most large companies while they are in business because of the fact that mistakes do happen. Also, with U.S. labor on products being performed outside of the United States it can be somewhat challenging to make sure other countries are following standards set by the U.S. Product recalls will happen when a company realizes there is something wrong with their product and they offer customers who bought the product a chance to get a refund on the product or just send it back to the company so no one gets hurt. Just because a product is recalled does not necessarily always translate into it being dangerous, sometimes companies recall products that are just not up to their standards and they would like to attempt to give the customer a chance to get a better product that is up to standard. Also, sometimes good things can come out of a product recall because a lot of times competitors’ of companies with recalls see an increase in sales. A NJ Chevy dealer stated that the recent recall that is part of the auto industry has helped sales of cars that are not from the company that had the recalls. This same New Jersey Chevrolet dealer also said that he has seen a large increase in sales this year, due to the mess of their competitors’ companies. This is an example of how some good can come out of product recalls, although this does not always happen. Below is a list of three large American industries that have had product recalls in the past few years and what has happened to them since their problems began:
1. The toy industry felt very negative effects when a major toy production company was forced to recall millions of children’s toys due to lead in the paint. This specific toy company suffered very large losses because parents were very angry that their children could have suffered lead poisoning from the toys. Also, this particular recall brought up the issue of companies having their products made outside of the United States, where the standards in foreign countries may not match those in the United States.
2. The agriculture and food production industries both ran into took some heat when bacteria were found in millions of bags of lettuce. Hundreds of customers returned the lettuce to the company that packaged it and there was not too much harm done to the company or the consumers.
3. Most recently, one company in the auto industry has fallen on tough times because of a massive recall on cars that were not made safely. The company first had to recall thousands of cars from one of their recently popular product lines because of faulty brakes and accelerators. Then, rumors began flying that this company knew some of their cars had serious problems with the breaks and accelerators, but they did not initiate a recall because they did not think it was very widespread. As if all of this was not bad enough, the same company was forced to begin recalling thousands more cars from various lines and years because of other serious problems. It is yet to be seen what will happen to this company in the next few years because this has just happened in the past few months.
Consumers need to be cautious with anything they decide to purchase and be sure to be on the lookout for any product recalls, especially on children’s toys and large purchases that could be dangerous if they are not made properly, like a car. It is pretty much essential for all consumers to be aware of what product recalls are and how to make sure their products are not being called back to the company, so everyone can be just a little bit safer.