Americans love their pets.
And their pets love the toys. Americans buy them by the millions each year, at stores like Walmart, Target, Petco and RiteAid.
Most Americans don’t know that a majority of those pet toys are designs from LRY Enterprises.
Fewer still know that LRY is run out of the home office of owner Leslie Yellin, right here in Westport.
That makes our town a major player in the pet toy world.
And it puts Yellin on the front line in the recent tariff wars that whipsawed that world — and every other business one.
Leslie Yellin with her latex pigs — the #2 best-selling pet toy in the US.
Yellin has spent her entire working career — beginning with baking dog treats in the back of Lick Your Chops, the Main Street pet store — in the industry.
She has never seen the turmoil she sees now.
For over 30 years she has built relationships with factory owners and companies oveseas. That’s where all her toys are made.
“Maybe once you could manufacture them here,” she says. “But there’s no way you can make a $2 cat toy in the US now, when you’re paying employees $15 an hour.”
Last week, President Trump slapped China with a minimum tariff rate of 145 percent. That stunned the country — and Yellin.
Leslie Yellin with pink pet toys she created to raise awareness of breast cancer.
“We’ve worked with generations of families” in China, Yellin says. “It would be painful to take business from them.”
Painful — but necessary. To survive, she must find factories in other countries.
“No one can do business this way,” Yellin notes.
“My company and big retailers can absorb some of the tariffs. But small companies, and most consumers, can’t. This is impossible. It will kill businesses, and lives.
“We are all in a daze,” Yellin says, speaking of manufacturers in many sectors. “We’re all asking: What’s the end game?”
When the first round of tariffs was announced, Chinese factories offered concessions. “They wanted to help,” Yellin says.
“But no one can absorb 145%. There is an entire group of manufacturers, just waiting and holding our breath.”
Yellin hopes there is a path to negotiation. If so, that must include recognition that China is treated with respect.
“Saving face is important” to those politicians and businesspeople, she says. “That’s the challenge politically,” for an administration that has not showed much respect for trading partners.
She could find manufacturers in countries like Cambodia and Vietnam. Trump announced tariffs of 49 and 45 percent on those nations, then paused them for 90 days.
No matter what happens, Yellin notes, “you can’t just flip a switch, and start manufacturing somewhere else. There”s a big learning curve, and a huge supply chain effect.”
In addition, she notes, all materials used in pet toys will still come from China.
“You can shuffle things around all you want, but the cost of goods may be even higher in the end if they have to be exported from there,” to be made somewhere else before arriving in the US.
Looking ahead, Yellin says, “People will spend less. They’ll buy cheaper products.” If the Chinese tariffs hold, “it will be devastating for middle- and lower-class Americans.”
Still, she says, her sector will not be hit as hard as some others.
“When a bad economy hits, pet toys and cosmetics do okay. During COVID our sales were up 25%. Pets are a source of happiness. People don’t let their pets suffer.”
But high tariffs are not a recipe for success overall. Major price increases in areas like medications and healthcare have particularly dire implications, Yellin says.
Meanwhile, she says, “I speak to major retailers all the time. We look at each other and say, ‘What are we going to do?’ Right now, we’re all in a holding pattern. Something has to give.”
Some Chinese factory owners have offered to change their invoices, to hide the source of a product (for, perhaps, a side payment). Some American companies may do that, she says. LRY Enterprises will not.
In this country, Yellin says, “Walmart says they don’t want to raise prices. I commend them. But we’re all going to have to eat these increases.”
Still, life goes on. The toy company owner is doing what she always would at this time of year: designing toys for the 2026 holiday season.
But, Yellin says, “I can’t do that forever. Something has to give. I’d love to know the answer: What’s the end game?”
(“06880” is where Westport meets the world — politically, economically, and every other way. If you appreciate stories like these, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Trump has no idea what the end game is! He’d rather make Americans pay unreachable prices, go out of business or pay him graft. He’s an evil sociopath and he must be stopped! America depends on this
So just let China continue to keep taking control of America.
Covid spread from lab in China. Buying thousands of acres near our military bases. Spy balloons fly over America and the Democrats let it happen with no consequences. China spying on America from a base in Cuba. And all of the cyber attacks and spying China has put in place in America. And yes they have kicked Americans asses with Tariffs.
About Time someone stands up for American businesses. Politicians have sold us out for almost 50 years. All parties.
Elections have consequences and you can’t accept that Trump is doing exactly what he was elected for. Make America Great Again for generations.
You rich white liberal Westport elites live in a bubble. Wake up!! You’ll never vote for anyone but a democrat we understand that.
AOC and Bernie sanders our your party leaders. You’ll never win an election again. Lol!!😂
Ignorant MAGA tool who left town but is so bitter is back. Loser, get a hobby besides ignorance and anger.
Jeff, The factories aren’t coming back, at least in the capacity that Trump is boasting about. That’s not how the world works anymore. They started leaving around 1979. The companies were making sound business decisions. I had a relative who opened up a factory in 1963, and was making millions in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but went out of business around 1995. The business he dealt with went to other countries with cheap labor!
Why aren’t factories, for the most part, not coming back? 1) It’s a minimum of two to three years to come back. They’re verbally saying they’re coming back, however, it’s years to make it happen. 2) We don’t have the workforce to work in these “thousands “ of factories that are supposedly coming back. 3) Countries are banning together to fight Trump’s plan. To go back to my uncle, do you remember when you bought an electric train set, you put the metal tracks into a rubber base, that was his invention. Then he made parts for car doors, but the car companies went to other countries where they could pay much less for the parts. I mean how could you blame them? My uncle’s factory couldn’t compete. They eventually folded after making millions!
Two hotdogs, please -hold mustard & the angry BS. You need another schtick- this one is tired, old and as crazy as felon47.
I don’t understand personal attacks like this, not your first time. It’s elitist, condescending, and as a realtor I’d think you wouldn’t want to portray Westporters in a positive light and not reinforce the snobbery which is how many outsiders view the townfolk.
It’s ok to have differing political viewpoints, I suggest you listen to the most recent Real Time with Bill Maher, time for everyone to put down the pitchforks.
Such funny comments. Bill Maher was fooled by felon47- the greatest “charming” snake oil salesman of this century. His guest Steve Bannon thinks factories are coming back, also. Maybe he’d like to work in one?
Looking forward to all the American factories that will be springing up everywhere. Then, I’ll stroll down to the Merritt superette to pickup an American made Pez dispenser for $40. Then, I’ll stroll over to the Coffee N’ for a medium cuppa Hawaiian Java for $60. Gored in the USA.
Thanks, Peter…that says it all.
I grew up in the 1950’s in Waterbury CT, which was the storied “Brass Capital of the World.” Immigrants from all over the world came to work there, including my 4 grandparents from Lithuania. In the 1970’s many of the factories began to move elsewhere to lower operating costs. This once proud city had to recover and still struggles as do many towns where manufacturing was a stronghold. To this day, many of the city’s factories remain as empty shells of another time. Manufacturing won’t just spring up in America during felon47’s term and workers for the most part may not want this type of employment.
LIBERATION DAY, the day you were liberated from your money!
A Passover metaphor. Trump is Pharoah. When will Pharoah say enough ?
Cheap pet toys so she can pay her employees all of $15 an hour. So glad she cares about the generations of families in China. It really does say it all.
Trump makes all his MAGA crap in China.
Philip, try facts over frustration—assumptions rarely age well. I’m proud to say my team is not only valued, and cared for— but generously compensated.
The illogical stupid TDS bubble headed comments by the usual suspects irked me till I now think of them as the “comedy section” of 06880. They make asses of themselves but provide color…however drab🤩🇺🇸
I’m starting to think that TDS stands for Tom’s Dementia Syndrome.
Tom, Let’s see in two years from today who’s right! These tariffs are a total disaster! I agree with ultra conservative Rand Paul.
People may have differing views on tariffs, trade imbalances and pretty much all things Trump. However, I hope most are of the view that the Trump approaches, style and problematic legality are not worth the risk he pursues of “getting things changed at any cost”.
the Wall Street titans are against Trump tarrifs. The Wall Street Journal is against his tariffs. frankly there are very few economists supporting the tariffs. The Economist magazine is against the tariffs. Trumps approval rating on the economy is negative 56 today
While tariffs can be a useful tool (and we already use them), the administration’s haphazard approach is nonsensical and destabilizes the economy.
And we see how the administration has lurched back and forth, with our trading partners, with the world, with China. And while some countries will cave to this idiocy, China will not. They’ve already shut off the US from shipments of their rare earth metals, which are vital to our automotive, aerospace, and semiconductor industries. (Not to mention that China is a major US debt-holder. It is no surprise that Trump backpedaled on tariffs when the bond market started to tank.) Businesses multi-nationals crave stability and certainty, China craves stability and certainty. The U.S. administration enjoys disrupting. Who do you think is going to be left out in this equation.
I would encourage anyone interested to read this article on the area where I grew up. (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/12/us/south-carolina-manufacturing-tariffs.html?unlocked_article_code=1._U4.JKJ3.PStR4Pw0VCN0&smid=url-share) In fifty years, Upstate South Carolina has evolved from an area of dying textile mills to one of high-tech manufacturing. The standard of living has doubled during that time. But the administrations economic guru Peter Navarro (something of a crackpot who cited in his book a fake economic Nobelist he invented in order to make his fringe economic ideas seem credible) is critical of the upstate auto manufactures and seems to want to see sock and t-shirt factories return to the area (presumably, brown lung, too).
What exactly are you doing about this other than comments on a bloog?
Writing and calling my representatives. But as long as the GOP majorities in both houses defer congressional responsibilities to the administration, there is not a lot that can improve the situation.
(We see that today, POTUS is flat-out refusing to abide by an order of SCOTUS. I have avoided hyperbole to this point, but this is a Constitutional crisis. Because if POTUS can ignore this order from SCOTUS, when will he stop.)
Certainly (if unfortunately) business leaders have more impact than “us.” When the Bond market started to slide… well, I wish I knew who influenced the administration to act sensibly, as I’d write him, too.
But it is hard to get someone who thrives on chaos to work rationally with our trading partners. $5,000 iPhones and high inflation may sway voters in 2026, but we are presumably stuck with the sh!tgibbon until early 2029.
Hopefully the world economy will return to normal