Different Ways to Have Commerce
By Kevin Gibbons
During the Covid-19 pandemic, my wife and I ran into an unusual problem. Like many people, we took the shutdown and isolation as an opportunity to declutter our house, finally getting rid of many unused possessions we had accumulated over the years.
After sorting items, we took them to our local thrift store to donate, only to learn that we were not alone! So many people in our community had the same idea that the thrift store was only accepting donations sporadically, between 10:00 – 10:30 in the morning. They just did not have the space to store, nor the staff to sort and price all the donations!
As we grew frustrated trying to find a responsible way to repurpose so many of our unwanted items, I started thinking about some alternative ways to conduct local commerce. Most of us are aware of several approaches:
Buy new from a store
Buy or list used items from a thrift or consignment store
Buy or sell at garage sales and flea markets
Buy or list on Craigslist or other online outlets
We’ve recently been looking at two newer approaches to conduct local commerce. While both of these services have been around for a while, I believe they are undergoing a boom in popularity.
Nextdoor
Nextdoor.com is a neighborhood outreach and contact site. It is a way for very local neighbors to get to know each other and communicate local information. My wife uses it to monitor lost and found pets in our neighborhood, so when she sees animals, she can better notify the neighbors.
Another growing use for this site is local commerce. Yes, there are the usual garage and yard sale notices one would expect. But we are also seeing an increase in bartering and “trade for kind offers.” Someone will post a notice saying they are looking for a used computer monitor and have a lawn mower to trade. The useful feature about this type of commerce is that it becomes a local flea market without having to dedicate the time, space and effort to actually set up and sell your wares.
It’s all started and negotiated on-line, with only the actual swaps being done in person, cutting down on the time commitment. This common platform also makes it easy to conduct multiple swaps (kind of like baseball team player trades.) You can arrange a deal with three or four people, all trading what they have to get what they want.
Patch
Patch.com has been around longer than Nextdoor and is a bit more geared to exchanging local news and information than the more intimate connections that Nextdoor tries to cultivate. But that focus on local news means local swap meets and more structured events can get more prominent display, without sifting through a lot of the more “over the fence” news topics.
The advantages of both of these resources, and others like them are that they are hyper-local, focusing on your immediate neighborhood, and they present the opportunity for alternative ways to conduct local commerce. You don’t always have to exchange dollar bills to get what you want. Trading for use can help the environment, cut down on your own clutter, and give you a real appreciation for your new belongings that can be tied to a real exchange value. Give it a try!
Kevin Gibbons is a Cash Flow Planning Expert, the Vice President of The Savvy Life and co-author of the international bestseller Living The Savvy Life. For the past eight years, Kevin and Savvy Life Founder Melissa Tosetti have worked with over 650 individuals and families to create Spending Plans.
To learn about how Kevin and Melissa work with clients to create Spending Plans, visit The Savvy Life’s Home Page. If you’d like to learn about how they work with financial advisors and their clients visit: The Savvy Life Advisor’s Page.
