This article is about the increasing popularity of renting items rather than buying them, is it more worth it to buy an item, or just rent it? With the recent financial crisis, people have turned to businesses like Uber and Airbnb where they can rent a room out of someone’s house or catch a ride with a person for cheaper than a hotel room or a cab. The fact that through renting, you get the same experience as buying, but for cheaper is a responsible choice when budgeting your money. This is also a main factor in attracting people to renting rather than buying.
Jennifer Hyman, co-founder and chief executive of Rent the Runway said, “We are now in a state of mind where we want to acquire more experiences. The 1990s ‘MTV Cribs’ show-off-how-much-money-you-have generation is over.” People have strayed away from the need for possessions, and are beginning to appreciate the experience of an item or a service more. This article also states that a majority of people that rack up the debt don’t do so by buying clothes, electronics or food, they do so by buying basic things like cars and houses. So with the new option of renting these things, people see a way to avoid debt.
There are some points to be made against renting. For example, what happens when somebody breaks the rented item? This question is one that has to be answered by the company renting, but the point is there are flaws to the system.
The final part of the article made the point that most people were more interested in renting more expensive items and services rather than buying. Also buying cheaper items like a vacuum rather than going through the process of renting one. People who rent with the option of buying, also leads to a lot of purchases. I feel like in this day in age, people need a little trail run with more expensive items before they take the plunge and commit to buying. Renting is a useful tool to save money and get the same experience while also figuring out if you want to buy the product in the end.
The rise of the rental economy is good for young people looking for homes because currently many people buy homes before they can afford it, causing vast amounts of debt and troubles with the finances that come with owning a home such as maintenance. For young people, it is much smarter to start of renting and maybe buy when you can afford it.
ReplyDeleteAs renting things such as clothes, toys and other like items, these will save money, but they will not save you from crippling debt in the same way as renting a home will. The rise of the rental economy will be greatly beneficial for young people looking for places to live.
Renting has turned into a great thing for people especially recent college grads just starting to live on their own. It's a great way for someone who is buying an item for the first time and to test it out on items and decide if they want to make a commitment on it. It's a great way to save money as well.
ReplyDeleteRenting is very beneficial for young people because the truth is not many adults in their early 20's want to commit to big possessions such as homes and cars right away. However, I feel as though the younger generation is really the only generation that does do a considerable amount of renting and will continue to. This is because as people age they want to obtain assets and have possessions that they can in turn sell in the long run. I believe as though renting will never make a big impact since only renting big items is appealing and most people will eventually buy them, therefore the market is small. Also, if more people were to start renting it would most likely have a negative effect on the economy. Although other people would be making more cash by renting out their possessions, those college students who just graduated who would previously be buying houses and cars and taking out loans wouldn't be, and this would make for some serious trouble for banks, and thus the entire economy.
ReplyDeleteI believe the idea of renting instead of buying goods that are normally bought can negatively affect retailers, but since most of these items are expensive luxury items consumers could potentially have more money to consume other goods, or to invest. This concept of renting items is appealing to our generation because consumers our age insist on having the newest items available. Renting allows them to have these new items, but gives them the freedom to stop renting and acquire the latest and greatest products.
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