Catalogue of Caveats

Who but Ralph Nader would liken a pickup truck carrying a camper box around a tight turn to a circus elephant with one leg raised? Or another pickup in an S-turn to a round-bottomed dinghy during a squall? Who at the same time would warn that baby shampoos, their ads notwithstanding, will probably sting the eyes of some infants? Or declare that the most persistent cheating at supermarket meat counters is plain, old-fashioned short-weighting?

Who else but Consumer Reports, a monthly magazine that has been cataloguing caveats for shoppers since before Nader was old enough to lose control of a defective kiddie car. Not that there is any rivalry between Nader and CR. He is now, in fact, a director of the magazine's parent corporation, the nonprofit Consumers Union of U.S., Inc. The publicity accorded Nader's personal crusades, plus the general rise in consumerism, has no doubt contributed to CR's surging popularity. Founded along with Consumers Union in 1936, CR took 30 years to reach a circulation of 1,000,000. In the past four years, sales have soared to 1,870,000.

Word of Mouth. CR is frequently passed around or filed for reference in home and office libraries. It even pops up in physicians' waiting rooms, though last year it concluded a guide to choosing a family doctor by noting that "no procedure will assure you of first-class medical care."

Its contents also enjoy widespread word-of-mouth circulation by its readers, whose income and education are well above the national median. In sum, CR has many of the attributes of an attractive advertising medium. Yet it refuses all ads. "We feel that it would compromise our relationship with manufacturers," explains Robert L. Smith, assistant director of Consumers Union. "We never know what we are going to tackle next, and we don't want to feel restricted in any way."

CR is equally insistent that ads appearing elsewhere do not use the magazine's reports to endorse a product. "Credibility is our biggest asset," affirms Smith. "Endorsements make the public skeptical. They think something is going on under the table. With the present system, the public has a feeling that a rating has been earned, not bought." Nevertheless, some manufacturers occasionally try to cash in on a favorable CR rating. CR always takes court action to stop them. It is currently battling the Theodore Hamm Brewing Co. of Minnesota over the use of CR's name in its beer ads.

Dangerous Toothbrush. Much of the time, CR's evaluations are the kind that manufacturers would prefer not to read anywhere. Automobiles often take a buffeting. CR's August issue reports several safety deficiencies in four pickup trucks tested for use with camper boxes and suggests that it would be better to pack a tent in the trunk of a car.

Drugstore items are also common sufferers. Over the years CR has affirmed: Aspirins are all much the same, so there is no advantage in buying higher-priced brands; most cold remedies are a waste of money; mouthwashes have a short-lived effect on bacteria; nose drops can be dangerous to children.

Some manufacturers make the most of a bad rating in CR by correcting reported faults. Some sue (none ever successfully) or try to counter CR in other ways. When CR judged an electric toothbrush dangerous if dropped in water, its irate manufacturer challenged CR to let him brush his teeth while standing in a tub. CR refused the gambit, and the toothbrush was improved.

Income Procurement. To test toothbrushes, trucks and some 2,000 other items a year, Consumers Union relies almost entirely on its own staff of 300, which includes 50 engineers. Merchandise is bought anonymously on the open market by shoppers stationed across the country and then shipped to CU's headquarters in Mount Vernon, N.Y. Automobiles are tested at a branch division near Lime Rock, Conn., but appliances, textiles, food, electronic goods and a category labeled "special projects" (odd items like flashlights, electric scissors, bicycles) have separate laboratories at the Mount Vernon operation. An engineer determines what tests will be needed and then supervises them. His exhaustive report is condensed by a writer for use in CR and then given a final check by the engineer. Most used merchandise is auctioned off to employees.

The editorial director of CR is Donal Dinwiddie, a former editor of Popular Mechanics. But its major influence has always been CU's first and only president, Colston Warne. Now 70, Warne also helped found the International Organization of Consumers Unions (47 affiliates in 30 countries), has served on the consumer advisory council to the President, and, until recently, was a professor of economics at Amherst. Virtually all of the annual budget of $10 million comes from sales of CR (60-c- on newsstands) and occasional books on consumer topics. Most of the revenue is turned back into more product testing. But this year $3,000,000 will be spent on what Consumers Union, in an uncharacteristic echo of Madison Avenue euphemese, calls "income procurement." That means promotion to sell more copies of the magazine.

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