The business of toys is a multibillion dollar industry. From retailers to manufacturers, the toy industry not only has an impact on the economy but also your childs happiness. So what can we expect to see in the toy aisle for 2016 . Morgan brennan recently attended one of the largest toy fairs in the country to find out more. She joins us with our cover story, a great assignment, morgan. Reporter it really certainly is, sharon. It was very fun. The toy industry converged on new york city to preview the hottest trends in the toy industry. Here as what you can expect from the business of play as 2016 unfolds. He loves it. Reporter from the robotic dog to barbies to a new hoverboard to more than 100 new shopkins characters, companies are unveiling their newest characters and play things. U. S. Toy sales grew to more than 19 billion last year. One of the strongest performances in years. Experts hope 2016s product lineup will keep the momentum going. Star wars has helped, with a number of companies benefiting from the franchises source. Legos saw sales surge last year and expect that to carry out in 2016. We are building our own story, but of course star wars is another one, the same with super heroes. Theres no doubt the stories are a core part of the industry. Reporter licensing is a big business. 2016s film roster should continue to film sales. The hopes are very high. A lot of them are on the fantasy kind of genre. Reporter playmobile is hoping its licensing deal with the National Hockey league will propel it into the u. S. Mass market. We decided to go after it national wide. Were promoting it on television this year. Reporter while some toymakers are launching new lines, others are revamping classic ones. Take barbie, the iconic doll is getting more eye colors, hairstyles, even more body types, in an effort to appeal to more girls and stoke more sales. Last year mattel also unveiled hello barbie, a talking doll powered by artificial intelligence. Now its adding a smart home dream house thats an automated doll house that connects to wifi and reacts to voice commands. All of these efforts seem to be working. Barbie sales last quarter grew for the first time in years. Wow. Theyre really reinventing those classics, like the wooden dollhouse that my daughter had, no more. Reporter the toy category that grew the fastest was games and puzzles. Those were up 11 . Even those types of products are getting makeovers. If you take a look at hasbros monopoly, that game is in the process of getting rid of its paper cash and moving that over to bank cards. One of my favorites is lionel, a centuriesold toy train maker. Theyre unveiling something that looks like a toy roller coaster track with spaceship inspired locomotives that little boys can race rather than the model trains that youre used to seeing under the christmas tree, for example. That sounds like fun for little boys and girls and big boys and girls, too. Thanks, morgan. Joining us it steve pasierb, and dana points. Thank you both for being here. What are you seeing, steve, as some of the hottest trends in the industry . Were seeing innovation from end to end. On the tech end, tech has gotten really cool, tech toys are innovative and fun in a way theyve never been before. As the piece said, games now are hot. They interact much better with apps. One out there now is wet head is a water roulette game. Theres an app that extends it, you can make it a trivia game or add your own clues or your own way to bring it further forward. The integration of tech and toys, whether its slinky which still sells well or the coolest new tech toy across the toy industry youre seeing a ton of innovation which is helping to drive sales. What about imagination, dana . You both mentioned something about props in a box . Were calling it antiscreenplay. The idea is there are these millennial parents who even though they want their children to learn to code also want them to spend time without screens. Props in a box is two kinds of disparate costumes. They come with all the pieces. The child can decide do i want to mix the pieces, be a doctor, do i want to be a fisherman or whatever. And put these things together in an inventive way. And things like prop in a box, kids are making their own movies, posting them on youtube, teaching them all the skills one has in todays life. And letting them come up with it on their own. What i find really interesting, too, were no longer saying or not as much that this is a boys toy. This is a girls toy. Amazon doesnt have those categories anymore, target too. They made the decision to change aisles and openended play, which is what youre talking about is really hot right now. The way to think about this is toys are the instruments of play. And play is an essential part of childhood development. It teaches them social skills, spatial skills, negotiation in the case of Something Like shopkins where kids are trading them. Youre having your child play, and unstructured play in particular is an important part of developing a wellrounded child. Lets talk about shopkins. I just had my shopkins tutorial. I have a 10 and a 13yearold. Shopkins is completely new to me. Its a relatively new company thats taken off through youtube. Parents around the country are removing them from vacuum cleaners. Its a huge wave. Theyre everywhere. Moose toys, a Small Company from australia, really hit on that, driven by youtube and the internet age. There are now shopkins clubs in schools. They get together, trade back and forth. Kids learn how to collect. They have the patience to collect. They learn how to negotiate because they trade them back and forth. They learn organization, all those things that are fun. Theyre cool little toys, enjoyable, and at a price point that families can afford. I think the market has awakened to the fact that this is really hot. Youll see companies, lego and hasbros little kingdom, which has even tinier pieces. Mattel has some. Yeah. So everybody is aware, now that if you have a product with a 10 price point, people might buy lots of them and theyre collectible. One thing that i think still needs to have some progress here but were getting there is diversity in toys. I was really excited to see melody, the new africanamerican doll from American Girl coming out. Are we seeing more of that and more for latina and latino boys and girls also . Companies are understanding their toys need to be a reflection of broader society. So the gender changes, the broadening of race and diversity in toys are a real important part. Barbie is representative of that and some of the other disney lines. The market of the future is really largely latina. Mattel tapped into that with barbie, a doll that looks like me. Thats the key thing. Yeah. Its really interesting. Great to have you both here and great to come up with new ideas for our children. Thanks so much. Thank you. Now heres a look at whats making news as we head into a new week on the money. Americas economy grew at a slightly faster pace than expected for the Fourth Quarter of last year. The second reading of the gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the size and scope of the u. S. Economy, showed an increase of 1 on an annual basis. Thats slightly ahead of expectations. Although Consumer Spending was weak. Stocks and oil prices moved hand in hand most of the week and when oil climbed on thursday it took the markets right along with it. The dow was up more than 200 points and the s p 500 hit a sevenweek high. Stocks were mixed on friday. New orders for goods that last a long time, like refrigerators and washing machines, we hope, were strong last month. Durable goods orders increased by nearly 5 last month offering some hope for a beaten down manufacturing sector. If you like that starbucks reward program, you better look at the rules more closely because theyre changing. Instead of collecting a star every time you visit, youll get points based on how much you spend, sort of following the model that airlines use. That means youll have to spend more to get the same rewards. Well see if that leaves customers with a bitter taste. Up next, we are on the money, and were cashing in on refunds. One startup is on a mission to help shoppers put cash back in their pockets, they just need one little thing to do it. And later, which cars are most reliable. The survey that has the car and truck brands with the fewest and the most repairs. As we go to break, a look at how the stock market ended the week. Who doesnt look for the best deal you can find when youre shopping and what happens if that deal comes after you made your purchase, though . Many stores have policies that say you can keep the price difference, but billions of refunds go unclaimed every year. Startup paribus is looking to automate that process for shoppers. Whats the catch . Youll need to give them access to your email account. Joining us are cofounders eric glyman and karim atiyeh. Thank you so much for joining us. Let me ask you first, eric, how this works. Youre going to go into my email . How does this work. Sure. All these stores guarantee if you buy something and it goes on sale later, youre entitled to this difference in the form of a refund. Most people never check or know how to get this. What we do is automate that process. Simply sign up with an email account that gets your receipts. It will pick it up automatically. Any time a price drops well send in a claim for you and get you paid. Im on amazon more than i like to say. Is that one of the places that you can go get me a better price . Zappos, im not trying to say the places i shop all the time but a lot of people shop at these places. Absolutely. Both of these places we support. We support a bunch of other stores. Best buy, target, walmart. Really the Biggest Online stores are supported by our service. Its a little scary, though, i muss admit. The idea of someone going into my email, knowing what im purchasing. Isnt that happening already . Im getting a lot of emails telling me to buy products from certain retailers. Obviously, all these retailers are looking your shopping behaviors, your shopping patterns. They look at what time of the day you shop, the time of the week you shop, and they optimize their prices to get you to pay as much as they can. What were doing is not going through your emails, obviously not. We have tokenized access to your mailbox that allows us to pull only receipts. Based on the subject and the sender, we can know what the receipt is, and well put it up to our servers for analysis. Anything thats not a receipt stays in your in box, secured by gmail or hotmail or whatever you use. Im really into finding discounts. I have retail me not book marked. Is this the same or different . Were kind of an oddball, were first to the scene in doing this. Were also a strange business to begin with. Most things out there are either trying to sell things to you or you are the product, theyll sell your information. We dont do anything of that kind. Instead we built technology that acts for people as your agent. So if something has changed after youve bought something, if you missed a better deal, if you missed a coupon, it will spring into action right for you and our business is we take a cut. So we share the same incentives as you. Thats a key point. How much of a cut do you take and how much are you saving me on average . Normally we charge 25 of what we recover for you. You can bring it down to zero percent by referring friends. For us, we generally save people between 60 to 100 a year. But some results can be way higher. There was somebody two weeks ago who saved over 1,000 on a single price drop. Someone who saved more than 1,000 times in under five months. Depends on where youre shopping, if prices drop well be there to catch anything you miss out on. Eric, how long have you been around . How many customers would you say you have at this point . Were getting close to a quarter million users, which is crazy to us, we launched in may. Nine months ago. Wow. We had a few hundred beta testers. Today its growing by a few thousand people every day. Anything to help people save money, were happy to tell them about on the money. Thank you so much for being here. Up next, we are on the money. Rankings of the best and worst cars. Well have the models that are speeding ahead and the ones in the breakdown lane. And how to use the extra day on the calendar to help you keep your career on track. Youre not gonna watch it no, youre not gonna watch it we cant let you download on the goooooo youll just have to miss it yeah, youll just have to miss it we cant let you download. Uh, no thanks. I have x1 from xfinity so. Dont fall for directv. Xfinity lets you download your shows from anywhere. I used to like that song. Want to know which car brands have the most and the fewest problems . J. D. Powers new study tracked the dependability of vehicles after three years of ownership. Lexus came out on top for the fifth straight year, followed by porsche and then buick. The three names with the most complaints . Smart, second was ford, and dodge ranked last. Most were disappointed that the cars hightech features often failed to work. If youre ready to buy that new car or truck, heres some information that could help you make that choice. Consumer reports is out with its annual rankings from best to worst. From safety handling to reliability to affordability, reporter phil lebeau has what you need to know before you head to the dealer for your next test drive. Reporter with americans buying a Record Number of new cars, trucks and suvs, Consumer Reports says testing of those new models shows a clear split between the best and worst brands. Top picks this year include audi, subaru, lexus, porsche and bmw. When it comes to subaru, Consumer Reports says reliability makes it a top pick for buyers to consider. When you drive a subaru, they actually drive extremely well. They ride well, they handle well. Theyre reliable and do have a lot of the features, including a lot of advanced safety features that you normally only see in much higher priced cars. Reporter among the best individual models, the toyota camry is Consumer Reports top midsized car, calling it a near perfect sedan. The kia sorrento was named best midsized suv. The ford f150 was rated the best pickup truck in part because its cab is quiet and spacious. One reason some models got high marks is because they have Collision Avoidance systems, which Consumer Reports believes should be standard in all vehicles. What were the lowest rated brands . Fiat, jeep and mitsubishi. Jeeps poor showing may surprise some given the brands red hot sales in recent years. But Consumer Reports says that there are several issues that keep it from recommending a single jeep model. The reliability isnt very good. There are better vehicles out there. You know, certainly theres the image, the styling. I admit the styling very good. But you know, if youre looking for something deeper than that, unfortunately its not there. Reporter Fiat Chrysler, the parent of jeep, says it respects Consumer Reports opinion but says its continually improving its models. In fact, Fiat Chrysler says its own internal reviews show its models are getting better. Phil lebeau, on the money, chicago. One other car fact, the only car brand that has grown its u. S. Sales every year for the last ten years is subaru. Up next, on the money, a look at the news for the week ahead. And one very small and simple way to make a big impact on your monthly retirement income. Well tell you how, next. For more on our show and our guests, go to our website. You can follow us on twitter onthemoney. Here are the stories coming up that may impact your money this week. On monday well get a look at the Housing Market with pending home sales for january. On tuesday, well see if the Auto Industry is driving up sales with the latest monthly report. And its super tuesday, when 12 states and one territory will hold primaries or caucuses. On thursday well get an idea how the Services Sector is doing with the nonmanufacturing index for february. And the big number everyone will be watching on friday. The employment report. It will show how many jobs were added to the economy. There are plenty of ways to mark leap year. Weve come up with one that you may not have considered. When februarys extra day rolls around on monday, why not do a fouryear checkup of your money . From your retirement to your career, theres plenty to think about and see if youre on track for different milestones. Black enterprise Senior Editor Stacey Tisdale joins with us more. Of course you should always be monitoring these things. Every four years we always want to give someone an idea of what they can do it and what day. Why not leap year . Leap into leap year. Absolutely. Keeping your career on track. What are some things you should think about every four years . Every four years you want to reevaluate where you are in terms of what your goals are. Its a revealing thing. You want to look at the different responsibilities that youve had. I wanted to be a manager by now, have i gotten the reviews, the support, the mentoring that would get me there. You really want to see, four years ago, is this what i wanted to be doing . A lot of people in their financial plan, one of the last things they think about is insurance. Thats something that at least every four years you need to think about. What are some things when youre talking about Auto Insurance or homeowners . What are some things you should think about. The first thing you want to do with insurance is look at all the cool new things out there. There are insurance policies that will let you build cash that you can use for things like your childs education, something im personally looking at right now is you can get a Life Insurance policy that i have that you can add a longterm care rider. But again, the big three for us are Auto Insurance, make sure youre not paying for coverage that you dont need, for example. If your kids are out of your house, get them out of your policy. If your car is at least ten years old, you really dont need collision insurance. Look at those types of things. When it comes to homeowners insurance, again, think about, have i done any upgrades, have i added a new bathroom, have i added a new kitchen. Make sure that your coverage that youre paying for matches what you need. What about retirement . This is something that we tell people to look at every year. And often people just set it and forget it. One thing thats really cool with Retirement Savings is such a daunting thought, but small increases make such a big difference. If youre 25 years old, lets stay with this leap year theme, and you add 1 every leap year, by the time you retire youll have an extra 739 a month. Thats just by adding 1 every leap year. 45 years old, for some of us that might be getting close to that, if you add just that 1 a year, every four years, by the time you retire, youre going to have 263 extra dollars. The other thing you said is to make sure you assess who is helping you with your money, your financial adviser, assess that relationship every four years, too. It changes. Your goals change. You want to make sure that your adviser knows what your goals are, you want to make sure theyre on track. You might need to make adjustments to your portfolio or whatever. One thing thats important is look at your relationship with your financial adviser. Are they accessible to you, are they asking you about your goals . Great advice, Stacey Tisdale, thanks. That is our show today. Im Sharon Epperson in for becky quick. Thanks for joining me. Beckys guest next week, warren buffett. Well ask him his views on the economy, oil prices and so much more. Each week, keep it right here. Were on the money. Have a great week, everybody. See you next weekend. Didnt you get the memo . Its all good, or maybe not. Were live at the nasdaq marketplace. Guys are getting ready behind me. While they are doing that, heres whats coming up. Thats what stocks did this week, but a classic indicator says the rally may soon end. Well tell you what it is and how you can protect yourself. Plus and were going to have a big, big, big a lot of fun. We sure are, donald, because we have a way to make money in apple if shares go up, down or nowhere at all and well explain. And soup and cereal stocks have been on fire, but the chartmaster has a simple message for traders. Nothing for you
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