Don’t Buy, Borrow It!

There’s a new company in Colorado operating with a philosophy rarely encouraged in our capitalist society. According to KGNU’s Roz Brown, a new company has created a sharing app to ‘disrupt consumption’ with a philosophy that if you don’t use something everyday, you shouldn’t own it.

Fluid Market’s co-founder James Eberhard says the Fluid app is an online platform that lists items that can be borrowed for a small fee.

“We’re really trying to solve the problem that we have so many resources but we still go out to the store and purchase everything we think we need,” said Eberhard.

One of the most obvious items that everyone owns that is unused most days is the lawnmower.

“It’s crazy that something that you use for an hour once a week during the summer is something that everyone else in your neighborhood also owns. The whole basis of Fluid comes from that – how can we help people share things and have access to what they need without having to buy it. I’m really passionate about changing that so people don’t go out and purchase things they use once and then they need to move and it gets thrown away. Instead people could use us, and we provide insurance and a trusted system to borrow things from a neighbor.”

Eberhard says the Fluid app launched last year with 10 employees. He says many of us buy something on the off chance we might need it some day, but in addition to money, all that accumulated stuff costs space, time and often our mental well-being. Eberhard says no one thinks twice about buying a mountain home and renting it out when they’re not there – but we don’t typically apply that to our daily lives.

“I look at a perfect world where you would have access to everything you need, when you want it without having to buy it.”