He pays $200 a month for the sofa, side table, bar cart, dining table and four chairs in his living room. It’s worth it, the 27-year-old New Yorker says. If he needs to move, which he’s done twice in the last 12 months, he won’t need to lug a sofa across the city or worry if it will fit in a new place. The furniture-rental start-up, Feather will swap out items for something else.
The furniture-rental companies target high-income city dwellers who want a $1,100 orange love seat or $980 leather bench — but only temporarily. The furniture itself is a step up from Ikea. Others are renting out home goods too. Rent the Runway recently added West Elm pillows and quilts. Ikea is testing a rental service in several countries outside the U.S., including Switzerland and Belgium.
This wasn’t a big problem for decades when these sorts of businesses took advantage of nonwhite people
Some economy, can't even own the furniture you sit on.
Start-ups see a way to exploit young people’s inability to buy and own property and take advantage of that