Early on, CU made the costly but necessary decision to accept no free samples to preserve the organization’s impartiality and independence. As a result, the first car evaluations were funded by an independently wealthy expert, who bought or borrowed every model that was slated for testing. During the Depression, CR was forced to turn its research to inexpensive household products, like hot water bottles or electric fans, simply because they lacked funds for bigger ticket items. This commitment to creating informed consumers obviously struck a chord. A circulation of 100,000 in 1946 skyrocketed to 400,000 only four years later, and reached 5 million by 1992.
Educating the public to make intelligent choices was not without peril. Consumers Union was on the House Un-American Activities Committee list of subversive organizations in the 1940s and into the ‘50s. CU’s response:
If the condemnation of worthless, adulterated, and misrepresented products is a communistic activity, then the Federal Food & Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, and the American Medical Association must be paid direct from Moscow.
Today, Consumer Reports represents mainstream American consumerism. The millions of copies sold make it one of America’s most popular magazines, the online version hugely successful as well. Their independence, integrity, and thorough analysis make Consumer Reports a good resource for anyone contemplating a purchase of virtually anything.
Testing
How does CU test the various products? According to their website:
State-of-the-art testing equipment is always used and is sometimes complemented by equipment designed by our engineers. The actual tests are based not only on government and industry standards but also on standards our specialists think should apply.
For each product review, the magazine recaps how they test and then derive their conclusions. Every issue of CR lists the names and specialties of over 100 testing experts. No smoke and mirrors here. Everything is out in the open for anyone to see, instilling confidence in the entire enterprise.
CU uses various criteria to evaluate products, such as frequency of repairs, features, product history (including safety and recall information), owner satisfaction, comparisons with similar products by other manufacturers, warranty, and of course, price. Every year, over a million members of their consumer network in 65 cities across the country fill out questionnaires about product history and reliability. Recall and safety bulletins are published as soon as they come in.
Informing: Consumer Reports as Global Grapevine
Publicity – lots of it – gives CU clout. Shoddy workmanship and poor customer service don’t remain a secret for long; conversely, companies know that a good review will bring huge rewards. Unable to influence the report’s outcome in the case of a poor review, a manufacturer’s only recourse is to take the criticism to heart and improve their product. And that’s the whole idea. If manufacturers had been uniformly receptive to consumer concerns in the first place, there would have been no need for anyone to intercede on the consumers’ behalf.
A 1988 article from the New York Times, “Consumer’s World; How Consumers Union Puts Teeth Into 'Let The Seller Beware'” states: “The magazine's monthly product evaluations send out shock waves, affecting sales, advertising, production and stock prices. Trade journals regularly report the phenomenon.”
The threat of extensive financial fall-out from sub-par goods is motivation enough to deliver high quality. And all this attention is lavished on simple, everyday goods like snacks, batteries, and deodorants, as well as high-end items like cars, travel, and health care options.
Protecting: Consumers Union is Watching Your Back
Consumer Reports is not the only consumer watchdog out there, but it is the prototype of an organization making a positive impact by raising public awareness. Beyond testing and informing consumers, CU further protects the public by bringing consumer issues to government’s attention, testifying before legislative bodies, petitioning, consulting and filing lawsuits on behalf of the public.
Consumers Union is the exemplar for responsible testing. CU’s efforts prove that it is possible to provide the public with information to make intelligent choices regarding consumer purchases, and to raise consumer expectations within industry and government. Keep this paradigm in mind, and stay tuned for the second part in the series, when I draw a parallel to the most important American product of all – our democratic elections! Consumers Union’s watching your back. Let’s see who’s looking out for the American voter.
***
Many thanks to Nancy Tobi for her editing suggestions and skills.
Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which exists for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. We aim to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Electronic (computerized) voting systems are simply antithetical to democratic principles.
CER set up a lending library to achieve the widespread distribution of the DVD Invisible Ballots: A temptation for electronic vote fraud. Within eighteen months, the project had distributed over 3200 copies across the country and beyond. CER now concentrates on group showings, OpEd pieces, articles, reviews, interviews, discussion sessions, networking, conferences, anything that promotes awareness of this critical problem. Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005.
I look forward to the follow on article. But in the interim a couple of observations about systems.
As the dimension of any system grows, the dynamics change at a rate that is anything from simple multiples to exponential rates depending on the systems relative size. Providing for a family of ten is several orders of magnitude more difficult than maintaining the same lifestyle for a family of three.
In social structures as large and complex as that of the United States, products with a limited shelf life are madatory. Aside from the endless creation of commercialized junk ala the informercial products, and the crap that ends up in the dollar store there is a need for more substantial items to have high failure rates. If we build automobiles that were maintenance free for five decades, there you be little interest in subsequent models other than for reasons of style, performance, and vanity. The auto repair industry would vanish, spare parts manufacturers would bankrupt, auto mechanics would be a trade of yester year, etc. The same logic applies for sofas, televisions, cell phones...the list is for all practical purposes endless.
No obsolescence or failure rate within a product line equals far fewer jobs. This is not to say that houses should not be built more substantially than the silly stick frame McMansions that rise like unwanted weeds on every parcel of land that can be leveraged by developers. It is not to say that quality should be sacrificed, or safety, or utility, or dependabilty during the products life time. It is to say that in a society where jobs are issue numero uno (if everyone is employed there in theory would be no need to sell drugs on the street corner), that the reality of short shelf life, by accident or design, is inevitable.
Maybe when quality suffers to the point where nothing is worth a damn, that then creative craftsman will by necessity again rise from the ashes.
by
James Strait (39 articles, 0 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 191 comments)
on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 8:01:11 AM
