Consumer Reports

Have you ever been looking to upgrade your fridge or find a new car, but you weren’t sure where to begin or which review to trust?

Look no further than the library! BCL provides access, through Flipster, to both the Consumer Reports monthly magazine and the yearly Buying Guide.  

What exactly is Consumer Reports? 

Consumer Reports is a nonprofit organization that focuses on creating a fair marketplace for all. They are widely known for their thorough research and testing of products and services - without accepting advertising, sponsorships, gifts, or review products. They pay for all the products that they review and have a team of ‘secret shoppers’ that are scattered across the United States. 

The influence of Consumer Reports has shaped decisions across product safety, quality, design, and reliability. They survey millions of consumers across print, digital, and broadcast media which includes more than 8 million that visit their website and app, and the 2 million that subscribe to their magazine.

From those surveys, they amplify the voices of the consumer by pressuring businesses, government, and online platforms to secure pro-consumer policies on issues related to affordability, data privacy and security, and auto, product, and food safety.

Essentially, they provide honest reviews of products including cars, air filters, washing machines, etc., and make sure that consumers are spending their money on items that work for them.

(Fun fact - this is their 90th year in operation!)  

Where can I find the digital magazine?  

Flipster is a digital magazine platform where we not only offer CR monthly  and the yearly Buying Guide, but several other magazines! With Flipster you can view past issues, search for a keyword within a certain magazine issue (or all of them!), and you can even print out page(s) that you need.

You can access Flipster either through a web browser or you can download the app to your smart device. All you need is an active library card to log in!

If you’re wondering what the different is between the yearly and the monthly magazine, just think of it this way - the monthly magazine offers more detailed information and reviews on different products, while the yearly buying guide acts like an encyclopedia of sorts that only gives the highlights.    

To learn more about Flipster, or Consumer Reports, visit this page of our website!