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When shopping for everyday items from diapers to deodorants to dryers, German shoppers have long turned to a trusted source to learn how a product they are poised to purchase stacks up against others of its ilk.
Stiftung Warentest, which approximately translates to “Product Testing Foundation,” was established by the German federal parliament back in 1964. Its stated goal is to help consumers by providing impartial and objective information based on the results of comparative investigations of goods and services. According to consumersinternational.org, 96% of Germans are familiar with the Stiftung Warentest label, and about one third of German consumers rely on its test results for major purchasing decisions. Over 78,000 products and services have been put to the test since 1964. Amongst the organization’s stated goals are helping households to optimize their spending power and promoting a healthy, environmentally friendly lifestyle.
The non-profit, whose U.S. equivalents might be considered Consumer Reports, purchases goods and services from retailers and suppliers and carries out tests in independent, external laboratories. Once an analysis has been concluded, verdicts ranging from its highest accolade, “very good” to “unsatisfactory” are released online in its monthly magazine and online at test.de. Makers can incorporate test results into a product’s label in accordance with guidelines set forth so as not to mislead consumers. Since its founding, Stiftung Warentest has carried out more than 6,000 tests and investigated 3,600 services.
Those who shop on the German economy have likely seen its logo on a range of products—a vertical rectangle that is gray on top, red on the bottom and emblazoned with the word “test” and a stylized lower case “t.”
Its ratings system might at first seem rather confusing to American users, as the lower the numerical score, the higher the product’s worth. A decimal system that uses commas in place of periods only adds to the rating system’s seeming perplexity. Stiftung Warentest uses the following grade scale:
0,5 bis 1,5: sehr gut (very good)
1,6 bis 2,5: gut (good)
2,6 bis 3,5: befriedigend (satisfactory)
3,6 bis 4,5: ausreichend (sufficient, adequate)
4,6 bis 5,5: mangelhaft (poor, defective)
As the organization tests not only top-of-the-line articles but those bought in places your average consumer shops regularly (think Aldi and Rossmann, for example), it might not hurt to check out just how your next potential purchase compares to similar items. After all, “knowledge is power” is something even the Romans knew.
