This is a nice, comprehensive guide to being a consumer. It is very difficult these days to find a resource that provides straight forward reviews of a product. I had thought that the crowd-sourcing of information would create an easier way to find "good" products, but in many cases it has actually muddied the waters. A long time ago kleinbl00 posted a link titled How Yelp is Killing Restaurant Chains that discussed this. Not everyone should be a trusted critic. Plus, the system is game-able. It can be difficult to tell what is a real review and what is a planted review. When reading your piece, I realized that this is not how I buy products. I tend to have a few close friends that I trust that I get my recommendations from. My wife does use your method though and she is a very good consumer. Always buys for quality and usually finds the most aggressive price. She does thorough research, and enjoys that process. -I hate it. Together, we work.