If I understand this correctly, it's a great idea. Can anyone comment if this is a new idea or are similar things available?
Someone has likened this to Loot Crate (a 'consumerism-as-a-service'/we send you things every month deal), but my impression is different: it's about RENTING the non-disposable items your child needs. Bottles, clothes, toys, car seats, age-appropriate toys, etc.
As I see it, you have you currently have two options:
1. Purchase nice new things for baby and then dispose of them when you don't need them. Expensive.
2. Trawl charity shops, eBay, etc. for second-hand bargains. Time consuming.
This provides a third option that will ideally be between the two price-wise, and add extra convenience and assurance (promises to quality-check and sterilise everything before sending it back out) over DIY second-hand. Is this about right?
Additional opportunities could include:
* Up-selling consumables - they could deliver nappies/formula
* Product testing - partner with manufacturers to get stock for free/cheap in return for evaluating their products. (Not sure how valuable or practical this is in practice.)
As a user of second hand shops for babies it is not time consuming - at least not where I live in Virginia. These stores do excellent business because the market in used infant through toddler clothes and toys is HUGE.
Location factors in to this a LOT. When I lived in south Texas, the second hand market was thriving (at least in clothes and some less expensive toys). I now live in Puerto Rico, and second hand shops don't exist as far as I can tell (cultural thing - second hand items go to relatives and friends).
I had family in the central TX area, who would find higher value items at second hand stores (cribs, car seats, even an entire toddler room furniture set) for very reasonable cost, which didn't appear often in my area. I even had them start calling me when things would appear, and in a couple cases I had them purchase and hold items until I could make the trip to pick it up from them (and pay them back).
"As I see it, you have you currently have two options:"
My wife and I have a 2 year old and we did #1 till we were broke. We're having another in June and have used FreeCycle and friends this time around. We have far more useful items this time around and have spent nothing.
New parents are scared and research and buy everything. Smart parents borrow and inherit. We have gotten some amazingly (expensive) and useful items on FreeCycle (including all the baby room furniture. We'll be passing it along when we are done as well).
No offense to the creator. But as a parent of young kid(s), this makes me cringe. I think clutter-crate might be a better name.
So do you think you might have been a good target for this service? As a new parent, would it have allayed your concerns and been an acceptable alternative to new items? And as a smart parent would this be sufficiently more convenient than sourcing things yourself?
My wife spent a stupid amount of time researching everything and then finding the absolute best price (which is like saying you are a savvy lamborghini consumer). So as new parents, I doubt we'd consider it (tho my wife did do a trial of some curated eco-toys... we did not sign up and we did not find it useful).
So I would say no. We actually dread parties and holidays as it brings a huge influx in new toys that our daughter will likely never use or clothes she will outgrow in a few weeks and/or never wear.
#2 isn't actually time consuming, at least for clothes and toys (the things you'll be buying the most often--it's not like you have to go buy more bottles or another car seat every three months). Huge lots of kids' clothes are available on Craigslist for something like 1/20-1/10 of what they'd cost new. Every few months you just check craigslist for a couple of days until one pops up with the rights sizes, then buy it. You can go out any Saturday morning and round up a mountain of toys from garage sales with no special planning, and any thrift shop will have tons of them at any given time. And, again, Craigslist (and other similar services--my wife uses some Swap Shop thing that's AFAIK tied to Facebook even more than she uses Craigslist these days)
When you're done with the clothes or toys, sell them the same way you bought them. All that stuff ends up being very cheap when you do it this way.
It's easier than buying stuff new. The only time it's maybe more difficult is if you want something specific (e.g. LEGO bricks)
(mid-size city. Maybe it's different in small cities or big cities)
I didn't. I've since followed the link through to their Crowd Rise funding page and their idea is indeed Consumerism-as-a-Service. They are delivering consumables. If there are things you don't want or haven't used, you can return them and they will redistribute the items to the less fortunate; a social responsibility gesture.
Personally think my misinterpretation makes for a more novel business idea.
My wife and I just had two kids, about 14 months apart.
The essentials we missed out on must have been unknown unknowns for us. We bought almost all of our clothes second hand (there are thriving brick and mortar stores that sell second hand infant/toddler clothes). Outside of hospital costs the expensive part of having a baby isn't all that expensive, actually.
If I had a service that picked up the things I already paid for, I'd have to repurchase things when we had baby #2. That's not a selling point. (When clothes don't fit, or are incorrect gender, they can be used for credit at used clothes stores.)
Can not overemphasize the value of the secondary market. That is a huge cost savings for clothes and also large toys. Garage sales, etc. Why pay $100-200 for a fisher price car when you get a used one for $10?
The only exception I've found are good kiddie pools. Those things hold a surprising amount of value. There are a couple of products out there that are popular for dog baths, so kind of a funny market dynamic.
"Can not overemphasize the value of the secondary market. That is a huge cost savings for clothes and also large toys. Garage sales, etc. Why pay $100-200 for a fisher price car when you get a used one for $10?"
Wish I could upvote this more than once.
When the first child is on its way (or has arrived), new parents understandably want the best for their baby. Of course, in many cases this translates into "new". After all, unless your parents are pack rats or you've got older siblings who have recently passed through the early stages of child-rearing, who keeps this stuff around?
If rent-to-own stores are the greatest rip-off in consumer America, I think baby stores may be a close second. We spent far more time, energy and money in 'Babies R Us' than I care to remember.
Now when baby #2 arrives, you're a little more seasoned. Jaded, even. Hand-me-downs are definitely an option, and you likely no longer have the budget to buy all-new again. Yard sales can be your friend, and you'll be surprised how many used items can be like-new or restored to like-new condition and still be safe and clean for use by the new arrival.
Edit: regarding Bundle Club -- the whole purpose of this thread -- I think that it may be useful to first-time parents without an available support mechanism (family & friends) in their area. Existing parents are full of knowledge of what you need (usually due to an experience of not having it on hand), so if they aren't accessible perhaps a 'curated' experience may be able to fill some of the gaps.
When we were about to have our first we went to Babies R Us, and had to sit through some "new parent" training nonsense with a few other couples for a 25% off coupon. I thought at the time "25% off, okay I can endure 15 minutes." It wasn't worth the time. What I learned from that experience was that they were desperately trying to sell us a bunch of expensive crap we didn't need.
I think if they didn't try so hard its likely we would've bought a lot of baby stuff from them. Because of that experience we went to second hand stores where the employees left us alone and answered questions when we had them.
I think you would need to be able to tailor the bundle to your specific baby's requirements? For example, our baby can't have antiseptic creams, so sudocrem (which is very common), would be useless for us.
26 comments
[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 43.1 ms ] threadThis is like a Loot Crate (www.lootcrate.com) for your baby. No sillier than that idea, and you could buy yourself that nerdy stuff too.
I think the idea is great and something we might have done, or might sign up friends for as a gift.
I am especially happy with them collecting stuff back and refurb/donating it. That's a nice addition.
Someone has likened this to Loot Crate (a 'consumerism-as-a-service'/we send you things every month deal), but my impression is different: it's about RENTING the non-disposable items your child needs. Bottles, clothes, toys, car seats, age-appropriate toys, etc.
As I see it, you have you currently have two options:
1. Purchase nice new things for baby and then dispose of them when you don't need them. Expensive. 2. Trawl charity shops, eBay, etc. for second-hand bargains. Time consuming.
This provides a third option that will ideally be between the two price-wise, and add extra convenience and assurance (promises to quality-check and sterilise everything before sending it back out) over DIY second-hand. Is this about right?
Additional opportunities could include: * Up-selling consumables - they could deliver nappies/formula * Product testing - partner with manufacturers to get stock for free/cheap in return for evaluating their products. (Not sure how valuable or practical this is in practice.)
I had family in the central TX area, who would find higher value items at second hand stores (cribs, car seats, even an entire toddler room furniture set) for very reasonable cost, which didn't appear often in my area. I even had them start calling me when things would appear, and in a couple cases I had them purchase and hold items until I could make the trip to pick it up from them (and pay them back).
My wife and I have a 2 year old and we did #1 till we were broke. We're having another in June and have used FreeCycle and friends this time around. We have far more useful items this time around and have spent nothing.
New parents are scared and research and buy everything. Smart parents borrow and inherit. We have gotten some amazingly (expensive) and useful items on FreeCycle (including all the baby room furniture. We'll be passing it along when we are done as well).
No offense to the creator. But as a parent of young kid(s), this makes me cringe. I think clutter-crate might be a better name.
So I would say no. We actually dread parties and holidays as it brings a huge influx in new toys that our daughter will likely never use or clothes she will outgrow in a few weeks and/or never wear.
When you're done with the clothes or toys, sell them the same way you bought them. All that stuff ends up being very cheap when you do it this way.
It's easier than buying stuff new. The only time it's maybe more difficult is if you want something specific (e.g. LEGO bricks)
(mid-size city. Maybe it's different in small cities or big cities)
I didn't. I've since followed the link through to their Crowd Rise funding page and their idea is indeed Consumerism-as-a-Service. They are delivering consumables. If there are things you don't want or haven't used, you can return them and they will redistribute the items to the less fortunate; a social responsibility gesture.
Personally think my misinterpretation makes for a more novel business idea.
The essentials we missed out on must have been unknown unknowns for us. We bought almost all of our clothes second hand (there are thriving brick and mortar stores that sell second hand infant/toddler clothes). Outside of hospital costs the expensive part of having a baby isn't all that expensive, actually.
If I had a service that picked up the things I already paid for, I'd have to repurchase things when we had baby #2. That's not a selling point. (When clothes don't fit, or are incorrect gender, they can be used for credit at used clothes stores.)
The only exception I've found are good kiddie pools. Those things hold a surprising amount of value. There are a couple of products out there that are popular for dog baths, so kind of a funny market dynamic.
Wish I could upvote this more than once.
When the first child is on its way (or has arrived), new parents understandably want the best for their baby. Of course, in many cases this translates into "new". After all, unless your parents are pack rats or you've got older siblings who have recently passed through the early stages of child-rearing, who keeps this stuff around?
If rent-to-own stores are the greatest rip-off in consumer America, I think baby stores may be a close second. We spent far more time, energy and money in 'Babies R Us' than I care to remember.
Now when baby #2 arrives, you're a little more seasoned. Jaded, even. Hand-me-downs are definitely an option, and you likely no longer have the budget to buy all-new again. Yard sales can be your friend, and you'll be surprised how many used items can be like-new or restored to like-new condition and still be safe and clean for use by the new arrival.
Edit: regarding Bundle Club -- the whole purpose of this thread -- I think that it may be useful to first-time parents without an available support mechanism (family & friends) in their area. Existing parents are full of knowledge of what you need (usually due to an experience of not having it on hand), so if they aren't accessible perhaps a 'curated' experience may be able to fill some of the gaps.
I think if they didn't try so hard its likely we would've bought a lot of baby stuff from them. Because of that experience we went to second hand stores where the employees left us alone and answered questions when we had them.
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