Mattel, Inc. (MAT.MX)

Toy industry is currently stuck in 'a weird spot': Expert

Toy giants Hasbro (HAS) and Mattel (MAT) reported their first-quarter earnings revealing declines in year-over-year sales. As consumers get hit with higher prices for food and gas, more pressing economic concerns may be interfering with toy sales. The Toy Book Editor-in-Chief and The Toy Insider Senior Editor James Zahn joins Wealth! to talk about the retail picture rising toy prices are painting for the broader US consumer. "The toy industry is in a weird spot right now because we're coming off of a couple of years with the pandemic. We had all of those sales booms that no one planned for, and then they started to dive down," Zahn explains. "That softness at the end of 2022 rolled into '23, and now we're seeing it again coming out of the first quarter of '24. The big things right now are that families are dealing with economic concerns. They're paying more for groceries. More for gas. The excitement at retail really isn't there because all of the newness hasn't come in yet. So we're still in kind of a wait-and-see until some of these new, exciting products start hitting towards the middle of the year. " For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth! This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino