Consumer Reports Celebrates 75 Years With Event at Grand Central Terminal

All-Access Interactive Testing Exhibit in Vanderbilt Hall

Free Public Event Showcases the Breadth of Consumer Reports' Product Testing and Consumer Protection Work

YONKERS, N.Y., Oct. 28, 2011  /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by Consumer Reports:

WHO: Consumer Reports, the world's largest independent product-testing organization, is celebrating 75 years of helping consumers make more informed purchasing decisions and advocating for marketplace change.

Founded in 1936, Consumer Reports has over 8 million subscribers to its magazine, website and other publications. With more than 50 labs, an auto test center, and survey research center, the nonprofit rates thousands of products and services annually. Its advocacy division, Consumers Union, works for health reform, product safety, financial reform, and other consumer issues in Washington, D.C., the states, and in the marketplace.

WHAT: For the first time, the general public will have an opportunity to see some of the science and testing methods that Consumer Reports uses to test literally thousands of products. Consumers will also be able to interact with some of CR's technical experts and editors.

WHEN: Friday, October 28 & Saturday, October 29

FRIDAY PROGRAM
9:00 am: Join Consumer Reports Sensory Experts for a Bagel-Testing Demo
12:00 pm: Mayor Bloomberg Scheduled to Present a Proclamation to Consumer Reports **note photo-opp only
12:00 pm: "Eat Their Words"- Noted Food Writers Discuss the Media's Role in Shaping a Safer Food System

WHERE:
Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall
87 E. 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017

MORE: Based in Yonkers, New York, Consumer Reports is the world's largest independent consumer-product-testing organization.  Consumer Reports also surveys millions of consumers every year about their experiences with products and services.  

Some 155,000 products have been put through their paces in Consumer Reports test labs since 1936 when the organization was founded. They include everything from inexpensive sneakers to $105,000 sports cars. Computers and popcorn poppers. Cognacs and colas.  CR's engineers and technicians eyeball, heft, measure, weigh, taste, use, and abuse those products. They take products apart, leave them out to weather, drop them, crash them, and put them through accelerated wear tests to assess their durability. Sometimes they find hazards: Vehicles that tip up in emergency maneuvers. A grill with a firebox that drips molten metal. Kerosene heaters that emit deadly carbon monoxide.

SOURCE Consumer Reports