What, you’re still breaking out cash and swiping credit cards for goods and services? Many people, forced to get creative by the recession, are realizing that spending isn’t nearly as necessary as they once thought.
Some articles covering the trend:
A Washington Post story talks about how car-sharing services are growing, neighbors are more likely to borrow tools and even garden patches—and agree to help with each other’s projects too—and traffic at bartering sites like BookMooch.com and Swaptree.com is rapidly expanding. Brokelyn also named another good book-trading site, Paperback Swap.
Meanwhile, the NY Times discusses how the number and variety of barter classifieds at Craigslist has exploded, and that certain NYC tenants have managed to get discounts on rent by doing work that’s usually the domain of the building superintendent, like taking out the trash and checking on mouse traps.
This should all come as no surprise. As early as April, The Washington Times proclaimed that the barter system had been reborn. And when bartering has even returned on Long Island, who can argue with that?