I'm a capitalist. Why? I believe that money is the best proxy we've found for getting things done based on need. But I hate that it encourages companies to produce new goods constantly, and that this is a much more successful business strategy than trying to sell second hand goods. One of the curses of rich countries is that the overhead to fix/recirculate goods easily becomes too high relative to people's wages, and many useful items sit around unused.
Problems, as I see them:
The obvious place to start is the supply of goods, and that means removing as many barriers as possible to disposal. Currently, this looks something like:
At almost every point in that flowchart, one is faced with tricky choices which increase the chance of giving up, particularly if it's a small item which can easily be kept in a drawer. Moreover, there's an enormous lag time between action and reward (I want to declutter... ah, but it will take at least a week to offload this for a reasonable price and then I have to organise to meet up or pack and post etc. etc.). What it should look like is more:
The only question that could be asked is, when you drop it off, whether you want any proceeds to return to you or go to charity.
Not only does this model make it much easier to dispose of goods, it also allows secondary business to spring up. For instance, a specialist musical instruments store could easily capture a significant quantity of used instruments without hassle; or an entrepreneur could buy cheaply in wealthier suburbs and sell in poorer ones (or indeed ship goods overseas). It's not necessarily where every person would want to buy goods, but as long as most people want to sell there the volume and categorisation of goods will help create a better second hand market.
How would it be profitable? I'm not that concerned with profit, but I'd really like this idea to scale. There is the obvious 'take a commission' option, but my preferred approach would be to have a membership based store, where you had to put it, say, $10 initially. This would help cover the initial pending charge for drop-offs, and any sales would add to this total. You would also use this money to buy in the store. The only time a fee would be charged is if you took money out of the system (say 10%). That is, you would be incentivised to keep purchasing 'used' goods from the marketplace, as this would incur no additional cost.
Problems, as I see them:
- people keep things they're not using because:
- it's effort to get rid of something of value; a frequent strategy is to wait till it's near valueless, then dump
- they're not confident that they'll be able to find that thing in the second hand market easily (or cheaply) if they do need it
- second hand goods are not as cheap or of broad a range as they should be, because people keep things they're not using
- second hand goods have an image problem because people often don't put 'good' things into the market (keeping them unused until they lose value).
- second hand goods stores (pawn shops, op shops, etc.) have to have large-ish premises to hold stock, because they generally target a broad market, and their goods are inherently less attractive... whereas if they target a niche market they don't have an easy path to acquiring enough of that type of product - but compare the success of used console games stores, where this problem is largely solved.
- many second hand goods stores are 'boring'; frequent visits are not rewarded, because you see mostly the same old items you rejected on previous visits.
The obvious place to start is the supply of goods, and that means removing as many barriers as possible to disposal. Currently, this looks something like:
At almost every point in that flowchart, one is faced with tricky choices which increase the chance of giving up, particularly if it's a small item which can easily be kept in a drawer. Moreover, there's an enormous lag time between action and reward (I want to declutter... ah, but it will take at least a week to offload this for a reasonable price and then I have to organise to meet up or pack and post etc. etc.). What it should look like is more:
The only question that could be asked is, when you drop it off, whether you want any proceeds to return to you or go to charity.
Making a business out of it (if I had a few spare millions)
Each step in this flowchart should be as fast as possible (one day?):
- 'Deposit' boxes in high traffic areas, some kind of cross between ATMs and library chutes. These would automatically weigh and photograph items deposited and list them online. Ideally, image recognition would help categorise. Users would specify on the spot:
- any additional descriptive/category information to increase value
- whether the item was 'as is' or they guaranteed it was working/no major flaws
- whether they wanted proceeds to go to charity or to be credited back to them
- Less common larger stores, that would be aggregation points for the contents of deposit boxes (i.e. customers could inspect) and potentially accept larger items.
- A 'pending' charge would apply to drop-offs roughly equivalent to the cost of waste disposal, which would be removed if this was not necessary.
- Every day (or at some other interval, depending on volume), all goods would be auctioned online for next day pickup from the local pickup locations (they are _not_ sent to other locations). If it was guaranteed working, the person picking up would have to inspect on site and the person in charge of the store would adjudicate.
- Items not sold could be picked up for free by anyone.
- Items not sold or picked up for free would go to the appropriate waste disposal centre, cost paid for by drop-off charge.
Not only does this model make it much easier to dispose of goods, it also allows secondary business to spring up. For instance, a specialist musical instruments store could easily capture a significant quantity of used instruments without hassle; or an entrepreneur could buy cheaply in wealthier suburbs and sell in poorer ones (or indeed ship goods overseas). It's not necessarily where every person would want to buy goods, but as long as most people want to sell there the volume and categorisation of goods will help create a better second hand market.
How would it be profitable? I'm not that concerned with profit, but I'd really like this idea to scale. There is the obvious 'take a commission' option, but my preferred approach would be to have a membership based store, where you had to put it, say, $10 initially. This would help cover the initial pending charge for drop-offs, and any sales would add to this total. You would also use this money to buy in the store. The only time a fee would be charged is if you took money out of the system (say 10%). That is, you would be incentivised to keep purchasing 'used' goods from the marketplace, as this would incur no additional cost.
Comments
Post a Comment