PLUSH ENDEAVORS - AN ANALYSIS OF THE MODERN AMERICAN SOFT-TOY INDUSTRY

This article analyzes recent developments in a burgeoning American con sumer industry in the light manufacturing sector during the 1970s and 1980s. In terms of demand, soft-toy, or ''plush,'' production provides insights into impulse buying by a variety of income groups in a post- industrial economy, and it suggests the volatile nature of American co nsumer interest in low-value, disposable commodities. On the supply si de, plush offers a particularly good example of an industry that has b een sensitive to changes in cost, moving production around Third World countries while using information technology to improve distribution and to retain design control at home. The industry thus illustrates th e response of American entrepreneurs to the internationalization of bo th supply and demand.