Rent-to-not-own...

From my weekly IconoCulture news feed comes this story about a new trend in which Gen-Xers are leading the way.

TREND: iLetYou: Loan instead of own

WHAT'S HAPPENING: Consumers who prefer to borrow products instead of buy them now have an online marketplace with iLetYou, a website that hooks them up with rental retailers.

More than 65,000 U.S. business are participating to help consumers benefit from short-term use of their products. Think everything from traditional loaners like wedding party supplies to novel newcomers like clothing and kids' furnishings.

iLetYou's website (http://www.iletyou.com/) puts the shopper directly in touch with the retailer by including their digits and a link to their site.

The down economy may be creating more commerce commitment-phobes looking for short-term consumption. Consumers are increasingly conscious of their accumulation of stuff. Some are trying to cut down on clutter by renting or sharing items that are infrequently used. It’s sort of a Gen-X take on the Boomer’s Rent-to-Own idea, only this is more Rent-to-Not-Own.

Actually this makes a lot of sense, since so many things in out lives get very little actual use that it doesn’t really make sense to own them. Seasonal toys like personal watercraft and snow mobiles come to mind, but it certainly could include lots of things around the house that we seldom use, but would like to have on occasion.

The key, it would seem is to make access to the items that we might want to rent easy and affordable, which is, I guess, where sites like iLetYou come into play. The iLetyou.com site basically aggregates and fronts a whole bunch of merchants who have agreed to offer rental programs on things. Some are very familiar, like the chain of Rent-A-Center stores for furniture, but some are just regular stores that have rental programs.

You can rent just about anything. Popular categories are furniture, party supplies, kids items, wedding supplies, games, sporting equipment and costumes. They have a category labeled kids, but it turns out you can’t rent kids there, just stuff for kids. Bummer! Renting a kid or two for a day would be a great way to test your parenting instincts.

So, basically; you could rent an empty house and rent a bed to go into it. Then if you have anyone over, rent the furniture needed to entertain for the evening (offering a delicious carry-out meal, of course), including a TV or games or whatever else you need and then send it all back tomorrow. Maybe they even have a deal with a local dating serve to rent a spouse for the evening too, in case the boss is coming over with his wife.

Of course, at the end of the evening, when things could get interesting, your “wife” will have to punch out and go back to the Rent-A-Center. It turns out iLetYou doesn’t cover that.