Dorel sold more than 300,000 defectively dangerous kitchen steppers.

More than 302,000 households across the United States purchased a product marketed for safety and stability, only to discover it could send them crashing to the floor.

Dorel Home Furnishings, a Missouri-based manufacturer behind the popular Cosco Kitchen Stepper, is facing a class action lawsuit after dozens of reported injuries and a massive nationwide recall revealed a systemic failure in product safety oversight!

A Pattern of Negligence: How the System Failed

• Since 2021, Dorel designed, manufactured, and sold nearly 300,000 Cosco Kitchen Steppers across major retailers including Walmart, Target, and Amazon.
• The safety bar, a critical stability feature, was defectively attached and prone to detachment or breakage, causing users to fall.
• At least 34 incidents were reported in which the bar snapped or disconnected, leading to head and bodily injuries.
• Despite these failures, Dorel continued to sell the defective steppers for up to $70 per unit.
• A recall was not issued until August 2025, four years after production began!
• Dorel Home Furnishings’ “remedy”, a free repair kit mailed upon request, did not compensate consumers for the loss in value or safety concerns!
• Consumers were left with devalued, unsafe products, many still sitting in American kitchens today.

The Macro Consequences

The Economic Fallout

A $60 kitchen step stool may seem trivial… until you multiply it by 300,000 defective units.
Consumers / victims collectively spent tens of millions of dollars on a product now deemed both dangerous and worthless. Dorel’s recall offers no refunds, only a patch kit, effectively shifting the economic burden of Dorel Home Furnishings’ negligence onto the public.
Retailing behemoths like Amazon and Target continue to absorb reputational damage for hosting unsafe products, while consumers bear the cost of lost trust and wasted money.

The Public Health Crisis

Each detachment of the safety bar represents more than a design flaw, it’s a predictable injury event. With 34 confirmed incidents of falls and head injuries, the actual number of unreported cases is likely higher.
Dorel’s failure to issue early warnings or halt sales turned kitchens and homes into sites of preventable injury, disproportionately affecting families and the elderly, the very groups most reliant on household safety products.

The Erosion of Trust

Dorel’s delayed recall and inadequate warnings expose a broader crisis in consumer protection. Despite clear design failures, Dorel omitted critical safety disclosures, violating both New York and Missouri consumer protection laws.
Dorel’s misconduct shows how corporate self-policing fails, leaving consumers dependent on class actions to enforce basic accountability.

Systemic Failure, Minimal Consequence

Dorel’s recall was too late, too limited, and too convenient.
Rather than issuing refunds or admitting wrongdoing, Dorel Home Furnishings provided a do-it-yourself “fix kit”, a symbolic gesture that left tens of thousands of unsafe products in circulation!
This is not an isolated failure; it is instead emblematic of the broader system of late-stage capitalism that we live under. One which outsources safety to consumers, profits from risk, and relies on legal settlements to paper over structural negligence.

True accountability would mean mandatory transparency, refunds for defective products, and penalties that exceed the cost of doing business. Until then, Dorel’s case is a reminder that in corporate America’s cost-benefit calculus, consumer safety remains expendable.