ConsumerLab.com, White Plains, NY, has released the results from their “Survey of Vitamin and Supplement Users,” which revealed that 77% of consumers surveyed report being highly satisfied (“extremely” or “very” satisfied) with the brands of dietary supplements that they use. An additional 21% were “somewhat” satisfied, and very few (2%) were dissatisfied. Satisfaction was also high with the merchants from which supplements were purchased, with 71% of respondents being highly satisfied.



The most common place to purchase supplements was online, with 40% of respondents reporting an online purchase within the past year. This was followed by health food stores (34%), vitamin stores (27%), pharmacies (25%), warehouse clubs (23%), catalogues (20%), supermarkets (18%), independent distributors (18%), mass merchants, (18%) and health care practitioners (9%). 



The following brands and merchants received the highest overall satisfaction rating within their market segment. Rankings are based on the percent of respondents highly satisfied. 



Top-Rated Supplement Brands
Brand in Health Food Stores: Carlson 

Brand in Mass Market Stores: Nature Made 

Catalogue Brand: Puritan’s Pride 

Discount and Wholesale Club Brand: Kirkland (Costco) 

Healthcare Practitioner Brand: Thorne Research 

Pharmacy Brand: CVS 

Vitamin Store Brand: Vitamin World

Top-Rated Supplement Merchants
Catalogue: Puritan’s Pride 

Discount and Warehouse Store: Costco
Grocery Store: Whole Foods
On-line Retailer: Vitacost.com
Pharmacy: Walgreens 

Vitamin Store: Vitamin Shoppe

Nutrilite, a brand marketed by independent distributors, received the highest overall satisfaction rating both as a brand and merchant. However, sample bases for other companies within this category were not large enough to be comparatively ranked. 



The survey was based on responses from 4,181 subscribers to ConsumerLab.com’s e-newsletter. Respondents were frequent users of supplements, with more than 90% reporting the use of two or more supplements each day. Twenty-four percent of respondents used 10 or more supplements per day. Ratings were given for several hundred brands and merchants. Among these, 33 brands and 21 merchants were included in the rankings for each having received at least one hundred consumer ratings. The results are based entirely on consumer perceptions in November 2006 and are separate from the laboratory findings of ConsumerLab.com.