Summary
At the time of research, the authors found that the United States published 11,000 product specifications to guide manufacturing and that private industries had developed many more. These specifications covered a wide range of products including “foodstuffs, soaps, metal polishes, hooks and eyes, motorboat engines … and so on indefinitely.” Despite the specifications existing, the authors claimed that manufacturers did not follow safety specifications and additionally were more interested in selling products than meeting the needs of consumers. The authors assert that market forces alone are not producing a market that serves consumers' best interests. ''Your Money’s Worth'' argued that marketers of products used unfair practices in order to illegitimately coerce consumers. These practices included outright fraud in misrepresenting the quality and utility of products in advertising, promoting high-pressure sales practices, adding non-functional styling for deceptive purposes, and engineering products for planned obsolescence. The book also critiqued product differentiation on superficial grounds such as when various manufacturers sell nearly identical products but with different advertising and branding because this practice drives sales to benefit the marketer without also equally increasing value to consumers. Also, the book complains of lack of standardization, such as when sewing machines require highly specific parts unique to each brand when the parts could have been designed to be universal. ''Your Money’s Worth'' recommended that the public be skeptical about advertising claims, make some products at home, support the government in setting product standards, and support the creation of impartial testing research centers.Reception
The book’s release resulted in the publisher receiving hundreds of letters from people requesting more information about consumer products. Within months, ''Your Money’s Worth'' became a best seller and a featured book in the Book of the Month Club. Schlink and Chase, encouraged by the public response, solicited financial, editorial, and technical support from patrons of other activist magazines to found a new organization called Consumers' Research from roots in an existing White Plains, New York local consumer club.Notes
References
* *{{cite book, last=Mayer, first=Robert N., title=The consumer movement : guardians of the marketplace, year=1989, publisher=Twayne Publishers, location=Boston, isbn=0805797181, edition=1. print., url-access=registration, url=https://archive.org/details/consumermovement0000mayeExternal links