Behind the Scenes

These discrepancies raised serious concerns at a time when many Americans are already struggling with rising food costs. Because shoppers using delivery services have fewer opportunities to compare prices in person, the lack of transparency made it impossible for people to know whether they were getting a fair deal. Consumer Reports’ reporting and public pressure highlighted how automated pricing tests could treat consumers like test subjects without their knowledge. 

The impact was swift. Nearly 42,000 people joined CR in calling for action, and CR delivered their messages directly to the Federal Trade Commission. Shortly after, reports indicated the FTC had opened an inquiry into Instacart’s practices. Following the release of CR’s findings, Instacart’s parent company, Maplebear, saw its stock fall by 6 percent in premarket trading.

In the wake of this growing public and regulatory scrutiny, Instacart announced it would end its AI-driven pricing experiments. The company said it would no longer allow retailers to run item-level price tests, and shoppers visiting the same store at the same time would now see the same prices for the same products.

This outcome shows how independent research and reporting can influence corporate practices and protect consumers. Your support makes investigations like this possible, and together we can continue pushing for fairer and more transparent pricing for consumers.

That promise has become harder to uphold as online marketplaces have grown. Platforms like Amazon, Walmart.com, and Temu sell millions of products from third-party vendors, yet often avoid legal responsibility when those items are unsafe. CR has reported on hazardous products sold online, including flammable children’s pajamas, faulty carbon monoxide detectors, and unsafe hair dryers. In many cases, these products remained available even after recalls or reports of injuries.

CR is pushing lawmakers to close this accountability gap. In the meantime, here are tips to help you buy safe products today:

• Use extra caution with high-risk items. These include baby products, lithium-ion battery devices, and anything that goes inside your body or touches your skin.
• Understand who you are buying from. Look for the seller’s name on product pages and avoid companies with no clear history, website, or presence on other major retail sites.
• Buy from reputable sellers. When possible, purchase items where the marketplace itself is listed as the seller, since it is clearly responsible under existing laws.
• Read reviews carefully, but skeptically. Detailed negative reviews can be useful, while labels like “Amazon’s Choice” or “Best Seller” do not guarantee safety.
• Report unsafe products. Flag suspicious items on the retail site and report recalled or hazardous products to the Consumer Product Safety Commission at SaferProducts.gov.
• Check CR ratings. Many of our product ratings include safety evaluations. And if you see a CR Recommended mark online or in stores, rest assured the product meets our high safety criteria.

Your support makes this work possible. Together, we are pushing for stronger protections while giving people the tools they need to shop with confidence and stay safe.

Now, that legacy is on display in a new exhibition at Duke University’s Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. “Test, Inform, and Protect: The Consumer Reports Archives” offers a window into CR’s history of impact. It features historic product testing equipment, early CR publications, and archival photos that document the organization’s role in everything from food labeling reform to early credit access.

The exhibit also includes a modern touch: first-year Duke engineering students reimagined a vintage CR toothbrush tester and built a working model using current tools. The result is a living tribute to CR’s blend of science, storytelling, and civic action.

We’re proud of what the past 90 years have meant for consumers and even more excited about what lies ahead. Your support ensures that CR’s mission stays strong for the next generation, as we continue working to make products safer, pricing fairer, and corporations more accountable.

Explore 90 years of impact at CR.org/CR90.

Why Did CR Launch the Bread & Butter Newsletter?
What’s particularly exciting about this launch is that it’s actually a reboot. Bread & Butter was a standalone newsletter that Consumer Reports launched in 1941, during the war. It helped guide people through uncertain times of supply issues, rations, and price worries. Times have changed, but rising prices are a huge concern for people now, too. We’ve launched this version of Bread & Butter to offer a modern audience ideas on similar themes: how to stretch the dollar, solve problems for our families, find great deals, and feel a little more empowered in a marketplace where companies are eager to collect our data and sell us things with one click. We’re talking about all of these issues with personal essays and a down-to-earth tone.

Bread & Butter Has Such a Distinct Tone: Smart, Funny, and Packed With Useful Insight. How Do You Approach Writing Each Issue?
First of all, thanks for saying that! I would say that I try to approach each issue, no matter the topic, with a sense of adventure and a mission to reflect reality back to readers. We are all human, and we are in this together, you know? One essay was a narrative of my personal journey to repair a suitcase handle. I got to bring readers into our labs and introduce them to one of our wonderful technicians. In these pieces we’re connecting with readers over real-world problems and experiences and giving a behind-the-scenes taste of CR.

In What Ways Do You See Bread & Butter Supporting CR’s Broader Mission?
I think about this daily because I am still pretty new to CR. I often read about the organization’s mission and roots because I want Bread & Butter to embody those values. Bread & Butter is helping to guide people through their purchasing decisions, by highlighting product safety issues, by offering money-saving tips—and it’s doing that for a new audience on Substack, a platform that allows people to engage with us. I want to hear from readers. Leveraging insights and expertise from our own readers is part of CR’s mission, and has been from the beginning. 

To sign up for Bread & Butter, visit cr.org/breadandbutter.

AskCR is always available to CR digital and all-access members. To use it, visit CR.org and type your question into the AskCR search bar. You’ll get an answer based on our expert research, testing, and ratings—and if we haven’t covered the topic yet, your question helps guide what we test next.

Thanks to your support, CR continues to deliver trusted answers to everyday questions and help people make more confident choices.