Profits Double For Business Selling Pre-Loved Products

from TreeHugger.com
by Warren McLaren, Bundanoon, Australia

Might it be the United State's fragile economy? Or maybe, just maybe, a slow awakening to the inherent fallacy in the myth that bright, shiny new products will make us happy? Whatever the root cause, Americans seem to be embracing pre-loved products over virginal, with a new fervour. At least, it seems so for the reuse businesses run by Winmark Corp. who recently announced that their profits had nearly doubled ($10.3 million for 2010), against the previous years trading.

Winmark's retail businesses are all based on the resale of secondhand goods. Play It Again Sports sell preloved sporting gear from tennis rackets to snow skis. Plato's Closet finds new homes for unwanted adult clothing, while Once Upon A Child does the same for kidswear. And Music Go Round is where'd you go if you wanted to purchase a much thrummed guitar or clanged cymbals.

At TreeHugger we often showcase new green products, materials and technologies because they create an important buzz about what is possible when we put our creative eco-thinking caps on, but at heart we just love examples of products having multiple lives... read more story at TreeHugger.com