| Author | Stuart Chase and Frederick J. Schlink |
|---|---|
| Original title | Your Money's Worth: A study in the waste of the consumer's dollar |
| Subject | consumerism |
| Genre | nonfiction |
Publication date | 1927 |
| Publication place | United States |
Your Money's Worth: A study in the waste of the consumer's dollar is a 1927 nonfiction book on consumerism written by Stuart Chase and Frederick J. Schlink. It is notable for becoming popular enough to initiate a consumer protection movement. Soon after publication, its authors founded Consumers' Research, the organization that employed the founders of Consumers Union/Consumer Reports.
The book was a protest against marketing practices that made it difficult for consumers to be able to judge the value of products. It analyzed the ways in which Americans made purchase decisions and gave measurements of the extent to which products could serve the purpose that manufacturer claims stated that they could.
The authors requested an "extension of the principle of buying goods according to impartial scientific tests rather than according to the fanfare and trumpets of the higher salesmanship."[1]
In retrospect, a book reviewer in 1937 said that before the book was published that discussions about the consumer only happened in the context of women's magazines, home economics, or by unorthodox economists like Simon Patten, Thorstein Veblen, or Wesley Clair Mitchell.[2]