the underside of a gigantic globalized market

France 5 – TUESDAY DECEMBER 3 AT 9:05 P.M. – DOCUMENTARY

Seven toys are sold per second in France, or 220 million per year, which makes France the second largest European market and the fifth largest in the world. Impressive, these figures justify our close interest in this sector. Even if it is what we call in journalistic jargon a “chestnut tree”: recurring news linked to the calendar…

You just need to know how to renew the genre. What the documentary Toys by the thousands manages to cover the majority of the themes covered. He thus went to two resale stores: the pioneer Rejoué, in Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne), and King Okaz (without naming it), in Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence (Drôme) . This alternative appears even more attractive when we learn that, of the 150,000 tonnes of toys sold each year, a third, the equivalent of the weight of ten Eiffel Towers, is burned or buried in a landfill.

Another discovery was the importance of the adult toy market. One in ten toys is purchased for an adult, which generates 1.2 billion euros per year, or 30% of the sector's overall turnover (4.3 billion euros in 2023). At the top? Mini-Lego flowers, board games and fun cafes. Inspired, Cédric Gueyraud, doctor of educational sciences, confides: “We become “I” while playing. »

In China and the Jura

The rest of the film is devoted to the making of toys. Logically starting with a factory in China, a country which provides 75% of world production. It reveals, among other things, that the workshops were forced to adapt to the requirements of their customers, particularly in terms of standards (European, for France).

In France, in the Jura, two companies with opposing development strategies were chosen. The first is the traditional Vilac factory, known to the general public for its turning workshop and its hand finishing. What is less so is the dining room of Nicolas Pichardie, a « mechanic [de jouets en bois] at home »who estimates having manufactured 1 billion toys (sold), on his table, all checked one by one and by hand. What is even less so is that the company subcontracts a large part of its production… in Asia.

The second is the Smoby Toys factory, which relocated to France in 2022, investing 42 million euros in an ultra-modern and robotic factory, which allows it to have a reduced staff and production lines that run 24 hours a day. ““Made in France” is a demand, but at the same cost”explains Alexis Delorme, general director. The magic of Christmas is at this price. In the vast hangars, “today’s elves are forklift drivers”underlines the narrator.