Welcome to the Sharing Economy Where Rent is the New Own
My husband fantasizes about driving a Lamborghini. And a Chanel handbag is on my own wish list.
With price tags starting at $200,000 and $2,000 respectively, we don’t have realistic aspirations of buying either one. But services that offer access to shared resources, such as Getaround, rent luxury cars hourly and daily, and luxury bags are available at reasonable monthly rates at BagBorrowSteal.
So why own when you can rent something better? Rent truly is the new Own.
Fashion for Rent
I am sure I’m not the only woman who wears an evening gown once or twice and then lets it sit in the closet unworn for years. Jennifer Hyman and Jenny Fleiss launched Rent The Runway (RTR) in 2009 to help women expand their wardrobes in a budget-friendly way, and has raised $54.4 million from venture capital firms and magazine publisher Condé Nast. Instead of buying a new dress and paying top dollar, you can rents designer brands and new styles from RTR for a quarter of the cost.
The End of Storage Wars
No need for a war thanks to the new service StowThat. People with empty closets, sheds and garages can rent those spaces to neighbors in search of some additional storage. StowThat won a prize in a recent TechCrunch meetup so we can expect to hear more buzz about this great start-up company later this fall.
Share a Car or Just a Ride
ZipCar, a car-sharing service that has been hugely successful in urban areas and college campuses, enables to access to a car rental for an hour or even a day without the hassles and high fees associated with traditional rental car services. Other services offer access to rides only.
RedRide aggregates data from ridesharing services like Uber, Sidecar and Lyft, presenting cars that are closest and the cost of the ride. They call it a Kayak.com for ridersharing, and we will probably see more cost comparison services like this in the near future.
The Corner Office — Yours for the day!
The SAP Americas campus where I work has upwards of 2,000 work areas, but there is a waiting list for desks. Many of my colleagues carry their personal technology with them each day and grab an available desk wherever they can find one. And with the increasing size of the entrepreneurial and freelance workforce, it seems that desks are another commodity that can be shared for optimal utilization.
Co-working, sharing a workspace on the basis of a desire for community, offers both workers many of the benefits of an office environment, from office supplies and coffee to that invaluable exchange of ideas and inspiration that happens around the water cooler. No need to commit to the financial risk and burden of buying office space when you can pay for only the space and time you need.
What other goods or services do you anticipate we will be leveraging technology to rent in the future?
Nice new way to solving the ever increasing ambition problem. Liked the corner office idea
One idea that I would love, but I'm not sure that others in my household would subscribe to, would be a toy share. As the parent of two small children, there is constant clutter that ultimately one day gets passed along to our day care, goodwill or another worthy recipient (who likely are wondering why the toy is missing three pieces). While some toys become perennial favorites, others go untouched and unnoticed. Now, if I could only get my kids on board with this idea...
Good blog...Renting is a good idea and will reduce wasteful consumption, a real issue personally & environmentally in the world today!
Sharing is a mindset. I lived on a Kibbutz for 15 years so community ownership is part of my DNA, but now in my suburban NJ I cultivate some grounds that are officially community property and raise veggies that I share with neighbors. Cooperation in work, services, entertainment is a very human and natural way of behaving. Our modern society has degraded a bit of all that but I delight in seeing many young families work their way back to such arrangements. While it was easy to be in an institutionalized co-op, it's really a pleasure to pool with neighbors: errand runs, volunteer activities, childcare, and possessions. I have a neighbor with a snow blower for example who helps the entire block. I share veggies. Another neighbor loves to mind pets. Still another provides ride shares. For many in this community they know my "SAP Mentor basement" is a kind of couch surf stop for community visitors to the NY area. 🙂
Thanks Marilyn Pratt for sharing your comments..BTW Love your comments on sharing ; I wish if we can have 10% of people thinking in the same lines world would be a much better place where we could replace "I" we "WE"
The public library in my mother's neighborhood accepts donations of jigsaw puzzles, which they resell for $.50 - $1, a small fraction of their original retail price. After Mom and her husband work the puzzles she purchases, she passes along to me those she thinks I would like, and when we are all finished with them, she re-donates them back to the library. At a minimal cost, all parties benefit.
Gretchen