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prediction, as an aside: sometime soonish, there will be widespread adoption of something between renting an AirBNB, and owning furniture. Maybe it’s a service

prediction, as an aside: sometime soonish, there will be widespread adoption of something between renting an AirBNB, and owning furniture. Maybe it’s a service where you rent furniture. An AI-assisted interior decorator gives you a proposal, and the furniture is delivered and arranged. You pay a monthly fee. I won an Ironhack hackathon based on this idea. Tricky to execute though as furniture is big, heavy and logistics become expensive. If you have 100 customers renting sofas for 6 months (because ifthey rent longer, why should they not buy one themselves?), you will end up moving a lot of furniture. And how do you manage offering? Products from your own warehouse, or P2P, or both? Pure P2P would require no stocks, but also reduce the amount of products available on the portal which would make it less attracting. For an early market research test we created a profile on the local craigslist and asked people selling their sofas if they were interested in renting it out instead.. Then we also created a profile offering to rent out a sofa. Limited interest but we did get some fun response..

notahacker 10y ago
You'd think the author would take "it's only worth half what I paid for it", where what he paid for it probably wasn't a princely sum in the first place as an indication there probably weren't too many people that wanted to pay vastly more in monthly fees for second hand furniture...
jaredsohn 10y ago
Just in case you (or others) aren't aware, there are stores that rent furniture such as Aaron's (aarons.com) and Rent-A-Center (rentacenter.com).
- notahacker 10y ago
  There's a good reason why they've chosen to focus on the long term "rent-to-own" hire purchase model rather than the short term AirBnB-type model though
tacostakohashi 10y ago
If there were a personal possession I'd like transformed into a service, I think it might be clothing rather than furniture. With furniture, once you have the appropriate pieces, you don't really need to do much with them. Also, it's easy enough to buy / sell furniture as needed, i.e. whenever you feel like moving. As for clothing - with changing seasons, drycleaning, different dress codes, polishing shoes, etc, etc... wish there were something where I could order the next week or two's clothing for hire, and send it back dirty, and let someone else figure out when it needs replacing, polishing, etc.
- dingaling 10y ago
  Yes, clothes drive me mad. I'd find something comfortable in a decent fit and buy half-a-dozen of them all at the same time, then attempt to wear them until they wore-out. But when I went back to the store they'd changed 'seasons' or 'styles' and the same items were no longer available. I'd defer searching for and purchasing new items until my wife would force me to do so due to holes in my pullovers etc. I'm not sure how Steve Jobs overcame this problem with his turtle-necks, unless he had them custom-made. My solution to this was to start shopping in country-life ( farming / horse-riding etc ) and workwear shops. Not only do the items last longer but those ranges have much lower churn. Not as fashionable as high-street stores I suppose but functionally sufficient and less stressful for me overall. In comparison furniture has zero cognitive burden for me once selected and installed. I've moved house once and it was just a case of hiring a removals company with a big van, they did all the work.
  - dagw 10y ago
    But when I went back to the store they'd changed 'seasons' or 'styles' and the same items were no longer available Stick to classic designs from classic brands and you won't have that problem. The basic white dress shirt/blouse for example works for all occasions and if you find a fit that works for you from an established brand you'll never have to worry about fit again (until you change size).
    - mrexroad 10y ago
Terretta 10y ago
> A prediction, as an aside: sometime soonish, there will be widespread adoption of something between renting an AirBNB, and owning furniture. Maybe it’s a service where you rent furniture. Or, one could look into how others in the furniture rental business solved those questions in the market over the last 50 years, then analyze what it would take to disrupt: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-A-Center https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-A-Center The rent-to-own business was started by Johnathon Talley in Wichita, Kansas during the 1960s when he told customers of his store, Mr. T’s Rental, that they had rented a washer and dryer for a long enough duration that they had paid for it in full and now owned it. Thomas Devlin, a former employee of Mr. T’s rental, recognized the potential of renting name-brand products and partnered with W. Frank Barton and founded the Rent-A-Center brand in Wichita, Kansas in 1973. RAC provides new and used brand-named furniture, appliances, computers and electronics from brands, such as Ashley Furniture, Sony, Toshiba, Whirlpool Corporation, Dell and HP. As part of their rent-to-own business model, Rent-A-Center generally makes its items available with no down payments or long term obligations. Customers can return an item at any time, for any reason, without penalty and also have the option to re-rent the same item and pick up the payments where they left off. Delivery, pick-up, service and repair are also included in the stated rental price. Customers can also upgrade items while they are renting—the payments will change accordingly.

notahacker 10y ago

You'd think the author would take "it's only worth half what I paid for it", where what he paid for it probably wasn't a princely sum in the first place as an indication there probably weren't too many people that wanted to pay vastly more in monthly fees for second hand furniture...

jaredsohn 10y ago

Just in case you (or others) aren't aware, there are stores that rent furniture such as Aaron's (aarons.com) and Rent-A-Center (rentacenter.com).

notahacker 10y ago
There's a good reason why they've chosen to focus on the long term "rent-to-own" hire purchase model rather than the short term AirBnB-type model though

tacostakohashi 10y ago

If there were a personal possession I'd like transformed into a service, I think it might be clothing rather than furniture. With furniture, once you have the appropriate pieces, you don't really need to do much with them. Also, it's easy enough to buy / sell furniture as needed, i.e. whenever you feel like moving. As for clothing - with changing seasons, drycleaning, different dress codes, polishing shoes, etc, etc... wish there were something where I could order the next week or two's clothing for hire, and send it back dirty, and let someone else figure out when it needs replacing, polishing, etc.

dingaling 10y ago
Yes, clothes drive me mad. I'd find something comfortable in a decent fit and buy half-a-dozen of them all at the same time, then attempt to wear them until they wore-out. But when I went back to the store they'd changed 'seasons' or 'styles' and the same items were no longer available. I'd defer searching for and purchasing new items until my wife would force me to do so due to holes in my pullovers etc. I'm not sure how Steve Jobs overcame this problem with his turtle-necks, unless he had them custom-made. My solution to this was to start shopping in country-life ( farming / horse-riding etc ) and workwear shops. Not only do the items last longer but those ranges have much lower churn. Not as fashionable as high-street stores I suppose but functionally sufficient and less stressful for me overall. In comparison furniture has zero cognitive burden for me once selected and installed. I've moved house once and it was just a case of hiring a removals company with a big van, they did all the work.
- dagw 10y ago
  But when I went back to the store they'd changed 'seasons' or 'styles' and the same items were no longer available Stick to classic designs from classic brands and you won't have that problem. The basic white dress shirt/blouse for example works for all occasions and if you find a fit that works for you from an established brand you'll never have to worry about fit again (until you change size).
  - mrexroad 10y ago

Terretta 10y ago

> A prediction, as an aside: sometime soonish, there will be widespread adoption of something between renting an AirBNB, and owning furniture. Maybe it’s a service where you rent furniture. Or, one could look into how others in the furniture rental business solved those questions in the market over the last 50 years, then analyze what it would take to disrupt: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-A-Center https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-A-Center The rent-to-own business was started by Johnathon Talley in Wichita, Kansas during the 1960s when he told customers of his store, Mr. T’s Rental, that they had rented a washer and dryer for a long enough duration that they had paid for it in full and now owned it. Thomas Devlin, a former employee of Mr. T’s rental, recognized the potential of renting name-brand products and partnered with W. Frank Barton and founded the Rent-A-Center brand in Wichita, Kansas in 1973. RAC provides new and used brand-named furniture, appliances, computers and electronics from brands, such as Ashley Furniture, Sony, Toshiba, Whirlpool Corporation, Dell and HP. As part of their rent-to-own business model, Rent-A-Center generally makes its items available with no down payments or long term obligations. Customers can return an item at any time, for any reason, without penalty and also have the option to re-rent the same item and pick up the payments where they left off. Delivery, pick-up, service and repair are also included in the stated rental price. Customers can also upgrade items while they are renting—the payments will change accordingly.