The theory is simple: instead of buying a household item or a piece of clothing or some equipment you might use once or twice, you take it out and return it.
This sounds neat until it’s run for profit.
There is a business in my town. There’s probably one like it in your town. They rent power equipment. Anything from pressure washers to bobcats to bouncy castles. And as a man who has needed to drill precisely 8 holes into a concrete slab in 37 years, there is a genuine value proposition in renting a hammer drill for an afternoon compared to buying one.
This week’s rental for me:
- hammer chisel, 24h, about $70 canadian.
- E20 excavator, 8h runtime but over the weekend, around $500 with delivery and fuel
Not going to buy those things or pay someone to operate them. It’s a good deal.
The one in Chicago is great. They also had a huge collection of free seeds this spring.
Once I started using the tool lending libraries in the San Francisco East Bay, it was a game changer for simple maintenance.
- https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/locations/tool-lending-library
- https://oaklandlibrary.org/otll/
Some bike shops also have public work benches with tools. https://www.boxdogbikes.com/about-1
