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Why a beloved toy store was forced to close | August 8, 2025 | CNN 10 | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Why a beloved toy store was forced to close | August 8, 2025
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What's up, sunshine? Happy Friday,
Friday. Yay. Welcome to CNN 10, the best
10 minutes in news because of you. I'm
your host, Koi Wire, and my team and I
hope this week has been awesome. For
those of you who are back for the first
week of school, welcome to our brand new
wall of friends. We are so grateful that
so many of you are showing love to the
show by sending some fantastic art and
sharing your school spirit with us. Go
Jets. And by sending some seriously cool
swag, we will be doing some of our shows
from our ever evolving wall of friends
and can't wait to make you shine. All
right, your 10 minutes of news starts
now. We begin in Flint, Michigan, where
the Environmental Protection Agency says
the water is now finally safe after more
than a decade since the city's historic
water crisis began. For their part,
though, residents disagree, saying
they're still dealing with contaminated
water and long-term health issues.
Imagine not being able to drink the
water from your faucet or take a shower
in your own home without being at a
health risk. Back in 2014, residents
noticed changes in their water's color,
smell, and taste after officials
switched the city's water supply to the
Flint River. Tests revealed the switch
was corroding the city's aging lead
pipes, exposing residents to dangerous
levels of lead. Lead exposure has been
linked to developmental delays in kids,
speech and behavioral issues, even brain
damage. The people who decided to stay
in Flint were left without clean water
for years, suffering from health issues
ranging from seizures to Legionnaire's
disease, a severe type of pneumonia
caused by drinking contaminated water.
We're American citizens and we should
not have to live like this. Our our kids
and our families have been poisoned.
They said the water you can you can
bathe and shower in tonight. That is a
lie. That is a lie. My eyes are burned.
I'm still infected by this stuff.
The EPA's announcement comes after years
of construction and renovation. Flint
was forced to replace thousands of pipes
as part of a landmark settlement. Now to
a story that might teach us how to think
like AI as opposed to just having AI
think for us. A big update for Chat GPT.
The parent company OpenAI wants to make
changes for students who choose to use
AI with a new feature called study mode.
This version, which launched this week,
won't just give you the answers. It's
designed to work with students, getting
them to use that brain power of their
own and discouraging and/or preventing
them from taking shortcuts. The bot
offers hints, prompts, and asks
open-ended questions to get students to
come to their own conclusions on any
given question. Think your new friendly
tutor with an expertise in pretty much
every topic under the sun. When a
student gets frustrated, which might be
inevitable, and wants chat GPT to just
spit out the correct answer, the AI will
try to deny. The company says it built
study mode as quote, "a first step in a
longer journey to improve learning in
chat GPT."
Pop quiz hot shot. What was the very
first toy to be advertised on TV?
Monopoly, Mr. Potato Head, Silly Putty,
Answer is Mr. Potato Head, which came
out in 1952. When it first launched, you
had to supply your own potato. In 1960,
Hasbro began including a plastic potato
for all those silly facial expressions.
It is hard to believe the holidays are
just 5 months away, but toy
manufacturers like Hasbro are already
sounding the alarm that their prices
could be much steeper by then. Why? CEOs
say 30% tariff or tax on China and 20%
tariff on Vietnam will impact their main
toy suppliers. The trickle down of those
rising expenses can hit small businesses
especially hard. CNN's Maya Blackstone
takes us inside one beloved toy shop in
New York City which is having to close
its doors this month.
It was utter chaos, frustration, fear,
and to be honest with you, real anger.
Jennifer Bergman is closing her toy
store, Westside Kids, in New York City,
after nearly 44 years in business. The
tariffs and the uncertainty around that
whole debacle really was the nail in the
coffin. It wore me out. And I looked at
my numbers in May and June. I was like,
I'm done. Can't do it. I cannot pay my bills.
bills.
When President Donald Trump took office,
he promised sweeping tariffs on items
shipped to the US. In April and July, he
rolled out specifics and many took
effect this summer. I think the tariffs
are going to be the greatest thing we've
ever done as a country. Uh it's going to
make our country rich again.
Could you talk about the impact that
tariffs have had on your store over the
last few months? It really freaked
people out. I was getting emails and
phone calls from vendors left and right
saying, "We're not bringing anything in
until this is over. We can't promise
that you're going to have stuff on your
shelves." My scooter vendor in April,
which is scooter season, called me up
and said, "We're rerouting two
containers to Canada until this blows
over." So, my scooters are literally $30
more than they were in February. And
that's a lot of money. Scooters are not
that expensive. I can't eat it. I have
to pass that on. I don't have those
kinds of margins. The uncertainty makes
it almost impossible to plan. You know,
a lot of vendors wanted you to place
orders before the tariffs went up. We
didn't have the money. None of us have
that money right now. Prices going up
means I can buy less. It doesn't mean
that I make more money. It's not the
manufacturer that pays for the tariff.
Tariffs are paid for by the American
people. The toy market is particularly
volatile because many toys are
manufactured overseas. What percent of
toys are Americanmade? They're very,
very few and far between. The toys from
Mars are well over 90% are made in
China. What do you say to somebody who
says, "Well, it's better to only buy
toys that are made in America." I have
some, but they just languish on the
shelf. I would love to have my store
full of these beautiful handmade toys
made in America, but first of all,
they're very expensive and it's not
really what my customers want and most
of them can't afford it. People want
Jenga, they want Connect 4, they want
Lego. I think that there's a fallacy
where people think that everything
that's made in China is junk. They don't
understand that some of the really good
quality, really beautiful toys that they
have on their shelves are made in China.
Also, the Trump administration believes
that tariffs will protect American
industries, reduce the trade deficit,
combat unfair trade practices, and
address national security concerns.
Yeah. Let's look at a game. This is
sequence. We sell a lot of them. It's
very popular. Made in China. Prices
don't go up that much in the toy
industry. I have toys that have been
sitting on my shelves for 20 years that
have maybe gone up two bucks. Did you
ever think that you were going to become
an economist thinking about all these tariffs?
tariffs?
No. I don't think anyone I know thinks I
feel that I would ever be an economist.
For CNN 10, Maya Blackstone, New York.
If you get queasy easily, you might want
to turn your head. Scientists are
bugging out over a stunning new
discovery down under. A team of
scientists in Australia say they have
discovered a giant new species of giant
stick insect and it could be the
heaviest bug ever recorded in the
country. The massive creepy crawler
dubbed Acrfila Alta was discovered in
the mountainous rainforest of
northeastern Australia. Scientists say
its distinct eggs helped it stick out
and allowed them to identify it as a new
species. It clocks in at more than 15 in
long and weighs about as much as a golf
ball. That's a whole lot of bug. The
massive earthquake that rocked the
Pacific last week may also be
responsible for an explosive encore.
That quake, the sixth strongest ever
recorded, struck Russia's remote Far
East region, triggering tsunami warmings
from Japan to San Francisco. And
scientists say it's also likely
responsible for this. A massive volcano
in the same region, erupting for the
first time in 600 years. The surreal
scene looks like something out of a
movie. An ash plume nearly 4 miles tall,
rising into the sky from the 6,000 ft
peak. Officials say that cloud is now
headed out to sea. And luckily, there
are no populated areas in its path. [Applause]
[Applause]
Today's story getting a 10 out of 10. A
12-year-old swimmer competing against
Olympians. Chinese phenom UZD made
history last week, becoming the youngest
ever medalist at the World Aquatics
Championships in Singapore. At just 12
years old, she was part of China's 4x200
meter freestyle relay team, which took
bronze. youngest person to medal at a
major international competition since
1936. Her times have been so fast they
allowed her to compete at the
championships. Even though the minimum
age requirement had been 14, she started
swimming at just 6 years old just as a
way to beat the heat back in her home of
Hab Province. But she decided to give
competitive swimming a shot when a coach
brought it up to her. Swim sensational.
Time now for our best part of the show,
you and from our glorious new wall of
friends, this one goes to Mrs. Ramos at
Isbill Junior High in McGregor, Texas.
It's not whether you get knocked down,
it's whether you get up. Thank you for
all the autographs, too. And from our
CNN 10 YouTube channel, we have our
friends at our Lady of Assumption School
in Bo, Wisconsin coming in hot. Thank
you for subscribing and uh showing us
some love in the comments section for
your shout out request. Play that Friday
music nod there. Make someone smile. You
never know when or how, but you may just
be the spark of joy someone needs. Make
it an awesome weekend, everyone. I'm Koi
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