Arthur Kallet is appointed director. In May, Consumers Union Reports appears, with articles on Grade A and grade B milk, breakfast cereals, soap, and stockings. Circulation is a little more than 4000. 1936 Lawrence Crooks, independently wealthy and with a passion for cars, joins the Consumers Union staff and heads up its Auto Test Division until 1966. Because the organization at first can't afford to buy many new cars, he buys them himself or borrows them from friends.
Early reports focus on taking care of cars or tires.
The organization has little money to buy products to test, so many early reports are on inexpensive items like electric fans, hot water bottles, and radios. They are out to discredit, if not to destroy, the system. Good Housekeeping , whose Seal of Approval Consumer Reports calls a fraud, in turn accuses Consumer Reports of prolonging the Depression. 1940 Consumer Reports starts asking its readers about their experiences with various products in its Annual Questionnaire. The first questionnaire asks nine questions, including one about whether the magazine should be sold on the newsstand.