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Kip’s Toyland has sold toys to children in Los Angeles for almost 80 years, through wars, recessions and a pandemic. But now tariffs of 145% on most Chinese imports threaten the livelihood of the city’s oldest toy shop, considering that nearly 80% of toys sold in the United States are made in China. “We’ve been getting letters and other communication from our suppliers that say, ‘Fasten your seat belts, this is on the way,’” said Don Kipper, the store’s owner. In letters that Kipper read to CNN, suppliers announced price increases and urged bulk ordering before tariff pricing kicks in. It’s another sign that President Donald Trump’s tumultuous trade war — and China’s retaliatory tariffs — have left the American toy industry reeling. The US imported about $13.4 billion worth of toys from China last year, according to US Commerce Department data, not least because of the toy manufacturing infrastructure that was created and strengthened there over the last 25 years. For Kipper, whose inventory mostly comes from China, tariffs mean prices will inevitably increase — and he’s not sure what he’ll do. He said a small business like his can’t afford to stock up, nor is it able to store a large amount of inventory. Other suppliers wrote to Kipper about halting their production lines, which would have supplied toys for the holiday shopping season. “Please know this decision was not made lightly,” Kipper read from one letter. “So nobody’s happy about it.” A post-war dream Kip’s Toyland was started by Irvin “Kip” Kipper, Don Kipper’s father and a pilot during World War II. Kipper said that when his father’s plane was shot down in Bologna, Italy, he was captured and taken to Germany as a Nazi prisoner of war. Kipper said his father “decided if he ever got out, he was going to do something happy with the rest of his life.” Nearly a year later, in August 1945, the elder Kipper was liberated by George Patton’s troops. In October of that year, he purchased a small store selling flags and dolls, the beginning of Kip’s Toyland in Los Angeles. “When he opened the store, there were very few toy stores,” Don Kipper said. “Toys used to be sold in hardware stores and department stores. There were no standalone toy stores.” That same year, the first Slinkys were sold in the United States. They were made in Pennsylvania and continue to be produced there. The Slinky is one of the few US-made products still sold at Kip’s Toyland. Most of the items on the store’s shelves are now manufactured in China. Kipper said many board games once made in the US are now made in China, and some American toy manufacturers like Marx and Ideal have shut down or been acquired by other brands. Lower labor costs in China led to a vast infrastructure of toy manufacturing there over the last several decades, Chris Byrne, independent toy analyst, told CNN. Bringing that infrastructure to the United States is not impossible but would take a minimum of five years, he said. Even then, prices would rise, due to American labor and regulatory costs. While the manufacturing location has changed, the type of toys sold at Kip’s Toyland has not changed much. The store doesn’t sell anything that needs to be plugged in. It is a haven of classic toys – a place where children can roam the small aisles, seeing and touching the variety of puzzles, trucks and dolls, an experience largely lost in the internet age. Changing buying habits Aeri Schwartz, a mother who comes to the store with her toddler once every few months, looked at a toy fire truck that cost $20. But if it suddenly became $30 under the weight of tariffs, Schwartz said they’d have to scale back on what they buy. “Coming to a store like this in person is really special,” Schwartz said. “There aren’t a lot of places like this in Los Angeles. It’s a real treasure – and so not being able to come here and buy something would be pretty unfortunate.” Chelsea Kwoka, another parent who has purchased toys from Kip’s, said she would not be able to buy as much if toys suddenly cost significantly more. “I would see the opportunity of pivoting toward purchasing things like a membership to our local zoo or the aquarium,” Kwoka said. She said she also likes to buy used toys on Facebook Marketplace or pass down toys to other families in parent groups. “I think it’s a rough time for everybody in a lot of ways, and if I’m being real, buying less stuff is not a problem I want to solve,” she said. Kipper is aware his store could struggle. But he still expects there will be a parent here and there who runs in, looking for a last-minute birthday gift. Other than hoping customers continue to buy, his only strategy is to “buy smart,” choosing cost-effective toys people can still afford. But if the classic toys at Kip’s Toyland suddenly become more expensive to acquire, he will have to pay more. “It’s a hostage situation. If we have to, we have to,” he said.
