Except that rent-to-own is beneficial. Couches are fairly durable, but nowhere close to infinitely so. Eventually, a rental furniture place has to either sell

Except that rent-to-own is beneficial. Couches are fairly durable, but nowhere close to infinitely so. Eventually, a rental furniture place has to either sell or dispose of the couch and replace it, presumably after having extracted the maximum value that they can. There are also plenty of benefits for renting to own. I know a couple of startups on the east coast who rent furniture to own, specifically the lobby stuff (moreso than the actual office equipment) because 1) They were able to negotiate better than the listed prices and 2) it's potentially cheaper than hiring an account and/or figuring out the excise and use taxes on the assets. Just because there are predatory use cases doesn't make the practice predatory ut totum. Also, nobody's compelling people to buy furniture they can't afford.