Member-only story
Isn’t A Shortage of Toys at Christmas a Good Thing?
We don’t need so many toys
The other week there were terrible warnings in the news. This year the United Kingdom will experience a shortage of toys due to supply chain issues. Shock horror…! Parents should rush to buy Christmas presents now in case they run out.
I can’t help but think running out of new toys to buy could be a good thing. The United Kingdom has more than enough toys to go around. Most children here have more than enough toys. My son has enough toys. I am dreading Christmas because it means he will get given more toys which we will need to put somewhere. What if this year instead of buying new toys, everyone could just redistribute their existing toys?
However, there are still going to be new toys to buy this year. What the supply issues mean is that some toys might go out of stock. The main problem is a shortage of containers available to ship items from China. There are also issues due to complications importing items following Brexit, the impact of Covid-19 and in the UK itself a shortage of drivers to transport toys around the country.
The toy shortage might mean that a child can’t have the exact toy they want. Now call me Scrooge, but I think that is a good lesson for children in wealthy countries like the UK. Isn’t it good for them to learn…
