"Car as a service" is really popular, usually in the form of leasing. You can own the car at the end, but many people replace it with a new car after the period

"Car as a service" is really popular, usually in the form of leasing. You can own the car at the end, but many people replace it with a new car after the period ends as there are incentives to do so. "Food as a service" is called restaurants. But even for groceries, this is by nature a recurring business. They don't need you to sign a contract, they know you will come back if you want to stay alive, they have loyalty cards though. I never heard of "fridge as a service", or any home appliance for that matter. But it was popular for a times with phones: subsidized phones are essentially that. You pay your phone with your subscription, and after some time (often 2 years), you get a new phone, you got to keep the old one though. The new thing is recorded entertainment. Streaming services have took over music and video. Video games are a mixed bag, but we are starting to see "all games" subscriptions. Books are stubbornly sold on a "per item, keep forever" basis for some reason though, even on Kindle, which is ironic since "books as a service" have been a thing since the early days of civilization, in the form of libraries. Thinking of it "buy once, keep forever" is not that common. I just took a look at my bank account and most of my payments are services and/or recurring: utilities, gas, groceries (most of it made up of repeat purchases), subscriptions, taxes,... And usually, when I can buy something forever, I take that option, and I pay cash.