It is easy to think that product recalls are problems only large companies face. After all, the popular thinking is that small and medium-size businesses can pay closer attention to manufacturing and design elements than large companies, and so the odds that something might “slip through the cracks” are slim to none. Many also assume that a big federal agency will not pay much attention to a “mom-and-pop” shop when there are so many large companies out there with much greater exposure.
Unfortunately, no matter how careful one may be, the reality is that defects do occur, especially in situations where the product is manufactured abroad and distributed here at home. Furthermore, government agencies do not take a company’s size into consideration when administering a recall, as their focus is on the safety of the end consumer. In fact, a small business caught up in a product recall may find itself overwhelmed precisely because these agencies are often applying standardized solutions that work for large companies but may be a poor match for smaller ones.
