The desperate traffic in illicit goods across America’s borders continues. With Kinder Eggs.
Kinder (pronounced as in kindergarten and meaning “children” in German) can’t be sold legally here because the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says the toy is a choking hazard. The Food and Drug Administration also objects, deeming the thumb-sized plastic capsule that contains the little toy an illegal, “embedded” nonfood item.
For years, Americans who returned from Kinder lands supported a small market here in the illegal eggs, and the feds were prompted to make periodic crackdowns against importers, often ethnic food shops. But in the past year or so, scofflaws have risen to a new level of Internet-fueled defiance, touching off a lucrative Kinder boom. Web sellers buy the candies — which are the size of a hen’s egg, with milk chocolate on the outside, white chocolate on the inside — and charge from 80 cents to $2 or more per egg.
via Cardhouse