Consumer Reports

Back in the 1930s, about 1936, the first hint of Consumer Reports was a Consumers' Union which was formed. The first issues they dealt with were businesses that were not paying their employees livable wages, but over time their mandate had shifted and grown to include many products, and testing labs, located in several locations in the USA, and an annual survey which their members filled out. The sheer volume of participants makes that a valuable resource.

Lawrence Crooks, a car buff who was independently wealthy became a member and started the car testing division. Today that is one of the most well-known and best used department of Consumer Reports. It is a huge boon to those about to buy a car, whether new or used.

In 1942 they officially changed the name of their magazine to Consumer Reports to let people know their information was intended for everyone, not just the union members. A related website was started too, which now has over 3 million subscribers. This non-profit organization has grown very large over the years, outgrowing several big buildings, with their head office now ini Yonkers, NY. Their Consumer Reports and more specific subsiduary Reports are produced in Spanish and Canadian editions too.

This brief background outine is just to show that there is an impressive resource for checking out products before you go shopping, so you get the brand and/or model number with the best results instead of a disappointing product, (sometimes known as a lemon). They have excellent guides for car buying, electronics, household appliances, and their Health Reports can be a great help too.

At first glance I found the detailed reports far too detailed-looking for me. I skimmed them, and got limited benefit from them. I don't mean to say you have to understand all their testing procedures and the codes they use for evaluating them, but since I have subscribed to the magazine and taken the time to read most of the pages more slowly, I find that I do understand much better. They are being helpful to us. Consumer Reports is careful to sort out the features, for some of us like one thing about a product, and someone else might find a different feature the key deciding factor. The lowest price is not always the best feature - but sometimes it is. By showing the range of results they got in their lab studies we can feel confident that they have been thorough.

If you are not aware of this resource, I suggest you visit their website and check them out. www.ConsumerReports.org. If you are a Canadian too, look for the Canadian Extra, which is a section of both the regular magazine and their website. It zeros in on products that are available in our country. (Otherwise, we have to find ways to do cross-border shopping).

The range of products they check over is wide. From cars, and household appliances, to electronics, health and fittness items, and home and garden tools and many common items. In fact, they often hear about new products before they are made available to the public, so their testing results are out before you can buy the items.

If you subscribe to the magazine, Consumer Reports, you will also receive their annual Consumer Reports' Buying Guide. That is a paperback compendium of about 1600+ products, and shows you which are the best and worst appliances, cars, electronics and more.

I have summarized an article in the January 2011 issue of Consumer Reports, on how to find the best cell phone for you, based on their large survey of over 58,000 responding subscribers in September 2010. (More summaries may come when something really catches my attention).

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