Lending kitchen appliances?
Hi All - I'm exploring an idea and would love some honest feedback from fellow home cooks. I've slowly realized how many expensive kitchen appliances people (me) buy, use a handful of times, and then leave sitting on a shelf. Things like Ninja Creamis,…
Hi All - I'm exploring an idea and would love some honest feedback from fellow home cooks. I've slowly realized how many expensive kitchen appliances people (me) buy, use a handful of times, and then leave sitting on a shelf. Things like Ninja Creamis, Vitamix blenders, and pasta makers. The idea is a neighborhood marketplace where you could borrow one from someone nearby instead of spending hundreds of $ to own it. For example, renting a KitchenAid for a weekend to bake a birthday cake. Or borrowing a Ninja Creami to see if you actually like it before buying one. A few questions I'd love your thoughts on: Is this something you'd actually use? What's the first appliance you'd want to borrow? If you own one of these, would you ever rent it out to neighbors if payments and user verification were handled through the platform? What's the biggest thing that would stop you from using something like this? Would appreciate candid feedback - positive or negative. I'd rather hear why it wouldn't work than build something nobody (but me) wants. Thanks in advance!
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I would bet that few people would care for it or clean it as well as I would.
My SIL broke everything I ever lent her. My crockpot. My rug shampooer. I'm not lending anything to anyone ever again.
As a pessimist i forsee missing accessories, broken knobs, damaged cords, something getting dropped/dented/scratched/broken, things returned poorly cleaned, items warped/damaged from put in dishwasher instead of handwashing. While a fair portion of the general public is good, theres also a sizeable margin of clumsy/careless.... and a-holes
Nope Nope Nope. Everytime I loaned a kitchen appliance to someone it came back dirty and broken.
you could be having the same conversation with suburban dudes about ladders and lawnmowers and pole cutter saws. Everything is going to be treated like the person using it doesn't own it and it's going to come back late and/or grudgingly and/or broken.
My local library already does this free
I'd rather hear why it wouldn't work than build something nobody (but me) wants. Great idea. My Kitchenaid mixer just broke. I'll borrow one from one of your customers and swap it with mine when I return it. And until I find an identical one, I'll loan it out and then claim the borrower broke it. /s And I'm sure it will totally be worth the time and effort to coordinate the handoff AND the return, all for $30, when the unit will get $50 worth of wear because the borrower is starting up a home based catering business and runs it 24/7 during the week they have it. /s And then when their kid loses a finger, I'm totally sure I won't be sued. /s
No chance I’d do this. People are gross and don’t take care of things
I wouldn't lend kitchen appliances, but there is already a Buy Nothing group in the US where people give things away or ask to borrow things like ladders and such. My experience, there's not as much borrowing going on in those groups simply because people don't want to risk having their items damaged.
...and when it breaks, then what? Ever loan items to relatives? Lent a small chain saw to my brother in law, along with a hedge trimmer, broke them both. I borrowed a heat gun from a friend and it died, and I felt obligated to buy him a new one, which I did. I think it is a bad idea.
Couple of big issues to be aware of (someone did this for camera equipment) Lending/renting something to someone is legally known as "voluntary parting" and if they don't give it back it isn't theft. The police won't help, it's a civil matter and the owner would have to sue in small claims court. The owners home insurance almost certainly won't cover voluntary parting. Once they realize they lost their stuff and won't get paid by their insurance they are going to look for someone to sue... that is going to be you. They won't win because they voluntarily gave away the item.... but it is going to cost you to defend the claims - so you will need insurance to protect against that and a lawyer. The camera lending platforms ended up having to take out/pay for insurance policies to cover all the lenders, so they wouldn't get sued.
These impulse purchases are only fun if you buy them No one really needs them to the point they would rent a used one Think of these kitchen gadgets as a new toy for adults Fun for a few minutes, soon discarded