Depends on what I'm looking for. If it's something small (under like 20 bucks for me, substitute whatever for your comfort level), I don't even bother. I just go to Target and pick up the 2nd or 3rd cheapest whatever.

Now if it's a bigger ticket item, it gets dicey, because then the best strategy, in my experience, has been to determine what about said item really matters to you and then find a group of people who share that and ask their opinion. The problem with this is that those people have the best information, but also very exacting standards and aren't very sympathetic to arguments like "But I don't HAVE hundreds of dollars for a coffee maker."

Honestly, more and more in the past few years consumer products and services in the world has just been like a race to 'get something past me' and I've just started making my own stuff, buying vintage, or borrowing because I'm tired of being sold crap.

Australians have www.choice.com.au that use a subscription model to monetize rigorous product comparisons for big ticket items. I'm not sure what the options are in other countries. Obviously there are special purpose publications like DPReview and Anandtech

Consumer Reports is the big one here.

I find things like CR or choice really good if your needs align with the standard consumer's.

One example is I'd probably recommend you look at office chair recs from them if you were a male between the 20th and 80th percentile in height (or a female in the male ranges) and weight who only uses the computer for work. If you were like me, a woman who's 5'3" with the legs of somebody 5'1" who sits at the computer for hours, those recommendations wouldn't work. (They also wouldn't work for Yao Ming).

I've been doing $PRODUCT_NAME + "Wirecutter" for many items. I haven't had a bad suggestion by NYT yet if there's a Wirecutter review for it.

If that fails, I do the Google + "reddit" search, but I have to look through a few posts to see if there's general consensus among accounts.

Too bad wirecutter is very hit or miss. I have definitely bought their recommendations and regretted it.

Searching for query + reddit is an OK means of looking for recommendations

What would be nice is a store (like amazon or target) that only sold reputable items. I'm not looking for 3rd party marketplace (like walmart or amazon offers). Maybe costco (brick & mortar) offers this curated selection, but even costco's products are hit or miss.

Not really what you're asking for, but I saw this[0] a while back and it's made me actually think about can openers a bit now. You might find it interesting, too.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_mLxyIXpSY

lol that video was what started my can opener hunt. Also that YT is why I now have a microwave and a toaster on my 'things to hunt down' list.

I just default trust Wirecutter for everything these days. I know they might not be optimal - there's probably a better alternative for my specific usecase if I spent the time on it but I'd rather just let them make the decision on trivial things.

I can’t trust a review site that uses affiliate links, which is even more of a joke now that it’s paywalled.

The only real option is to spend more time, cross reference against many sites and forums, and use your intuition as to which comments and reviews are authentic. Also pay attention to negative reviews.