A company tried to make Monopoly in America and couldn't get dice

When the WS Game Company got hit with a seven-figure tariff bill on the board games it imports from China, CEO Jonathan Silva decided to find out whether he could make one in America instead. He picked a special 250th-birthday edition of Monopoly and, according to NPR, hit a wall almost immediately: he couldn't find anyone in the United States to make him 10,000 dice.

"We turned over every single leaf trying to find someone who would make 10,000 dice for us in the U.S.," Silva said. "It requires special machinery. It requires investment." He gave up and imported the dice.

He sourced the rest at home — a former Hasbro factory in Massachusetts prints the board, an Indiana shop stamps metal tokens shaped like a cowboy hat, a covered wagon, and an apple pie — but assembly took over a year, so he missed half the birthday selling season, and the games cost at least double what they would have in China. They retail for $80.

About 80% of the toys and games sold in the US are made in China, which spent decades building the supply chain. Silva is now awaiting a $6 million shipment of his other games, made in China, for the holidays.

Previously:
• FedEx and UPS promise to pass on Trump tariff refunds to customers
• MAGA billionaire who opposed offshoring is offshoring 150 Ohio jobs to China