By now, everybody knows it's possible to make an extra buck by renting out a spare room or an idle vehicle on various sharing platforms. But Wired reports on a lesser-known aspect of the "sharing economy" that seems to be gaining steam, particularly among young adults leery of accumulating too much stuff—the renting out of smaller-scale items such as clothing, sports gear, electronics, and lawnmowers. The story uses the example of Pickle, described as a "peer-to-peer clothing rental app," on which people can cheaply rent a dress or suit (or an accessory) from someone's closet instead of shelling out big money for something they might wear only once. Gen Z and millennials are the target audience, and the story notes that "power users" make about $36,000 year.
A similar principle is at play with the Yoodlize app that lets people rent or rent out a wide range of stuff from sporting equipment to party supplies, with top users making up to $15,000 a year. These types of platforms emerged more than a decade ago along with those specializing in bigger-ticket items such as Airbnb (for homes) and Turo (cars), but they've grown more slowly because less money is involved. But the story finds that such apps seem to be gaining steam—Pickle in particular recently reported a tripling of monthly users when compared to last year—in sync with a mindset of younger generations to avoid over-consumption. (Read the full story.)
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uBlock 
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Ghostery 
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