Collaborative consumption is trendy

Saving money, meeting great people, sharing… collaborative consumption has many advantages. But what exactly is it?

Collaborative consumption is a mode of consumption based on the sharing of goods, services, and/or knowledge. In practice, it involves sharing, bartering, exchanging, or renting.
This system is actually trendy. Don’t believe me? Let’s check right now.
Here’s a series of questions just for you:

• Have you ever carpooled?
• Have you ever stayed in a private apartment instead of a hotel or a guesthouse?
• Have you ever bought vegetable baskets from a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)?
• Have you ever lent your raclette grill to your neighbor in exchange for their awesome steam cleaner*?

(*works with any great household appliance)

If you answered yes to any of these questions, congratulations! You have already tried collaborative consumption yourself, perhaps without even knowing it.

And that’s exactly the problem: we practice collaborative consumption without really naming it. Why? Because collaborative consumption suffers from an unappealing image. In popular imagination, enthusiasts of #consocollab are either people on the fringes of society nostalgic for Woodstock, or Parisian hipsters who eat quinoa and get around by (second-hand) bike. It’s hard to identify with these atypical profiles – although quite likable.

Another even more worrying obstacle: collaborative consumption is considered a “poor man’s economy”.
Should we really be ashamed because in times of crisis we want to return to a more economical lifestyle, focused on others and sharing?
Definitely not.

We have all, at some point in our lives, invested time and money in acquiring a good (car, real estate, household appliance) or knowledge (such as education). It’s clear that all this investment is not necessarily fully utilized. So, why not let others benefit from it?