Read the full article at MSNBC.com
MIAMI - Cassandra Smith spends $800 a month renting designer handbags and leases a luxury condo in downtown Miami. Environmentalist Zoee Turrill helped create a bike-sharing program at the University of Denver.
Though they might seem to come from different ends of the consumption spectrum, they have something in common: They’re not buying things.
The rise of rental or borrowing services catering from everyone from fashionistas to environmentalists has even spawned a marketing buzzword: the “transumer.”
It’s a lifestyle that’s “less about treasure and more about pleasure,” according Reinier Evers of Trendwatching, an Amsterdam-based market-research firm that coined the term.
It almost seems anti-American to rent, rather than buy; a look at the popular reality TV show “Clean House” is a testament to Americans’ love of accumulating stuff. But Evers says that in this global recession, people are warming to the idea of renting, and not buying, certain goods — because of cost, ease or space considerations.
“On the one hand, you have consumers who want to collect as many experiences and part-time possessions as possible,” Evers said. “And then there are transumers who value non-ownership for environmental reasons: to only use something when you really need it, which involves everything from renting to passing something on to the next person.”…….
…….Rentals also reduce the amount of natural resources spent on producing an item, says Eric Ginsberg of Bookswim, a New Jersey-based book rental company.
“There’s a tremendous amount of natural resources used to make books, DVDs, you name it,” he said. “Sharing an item also saves driving to and from the store. Our books come in the mail. Our books are essentially taking mass transit to get to our customers.”
Bookswim would not give out sales figures or the number of their subscribers, but Ginsberg said that in the past year and a half, the company’s membership has risen 500 percent……..
