As holiday season approaches, shopping goes into high gear! Whether you’re looking for great gifts, buying items or services for yourself or your home/business, or even planning a health resolution for the new year, you can use the library’s online resources to help make your purchases smarter! Try these tools:
ConsumerReports.org
Our most popular source for reviews, ConsumerReports.org gives you thousands of unbiased reviews on cars, electronics, appliances, health care products and much, much more. Its handy, mobile-friendly site makes it easy to check at the store, where you can compare the products on the shelf in front of you!
Consumers' Checkbook
A long-running nonprofit site for service reviews, Consumers’ Checkbook provides customer-submitted evaluations and reviews of local services for home/construction, auto repair, medical services and more. It includes consumer guides to help you with the decision-making process.
New York Times via NYTimes.com / The Wirecutter
A one-day “All Access” checkout of the New York Times gives you access to The Wirecutter, their popular site for product reviews of home & garden, kitchen, health, tech, etc. It also includes helpful articles to help you become a smarter consumer (like “You Don’t Need a New Phone. Here’s How to Make the One You Have Last Longer.”)
ConsumerLab and Natural Medicines
Adding nutritional supplements to your shopping list? Trying a new alternative health regimen? Of course, speak first with your health professional, but also do your research with these two online resources. Natural Medicines provides overviews of peer-reviewed research on the safety and effectiveness of supplements, alternative medicines and treatments (such as acupressure for insomnia or anise for migraine headache). ConsumerLab provides independent analyses of specific supplement brands, reporting on their ingredients/additives, as well as overviews of safety and effectiveness.
Find these and other resources at ahml.info under Research > Databases > All Databases > Consumer. You can also learn more by calling or visiting the library or contacting us via our website.