Category Archives: Barter-Like Systems

Used Merchandise

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UsedMerchStores

Whether it be the post-recession, budget-conscious consumers or eco-friendly consumers who’d rather reuse than buy new, more and more people are buying used merchandise. In a July 2013 survey by America’s Research Group, nearly 20% of adults surveyed said they shopped at a secondhand store in the past year. According to the Association of Resale Professionals, there are an estimated 25,000 used merchandise stores in the United States, which includes thrift, resale, and consignment shops. This number is projected to increase by 7% annually.

The graphic shows U.S. sales made through used merchandise stores from 1992 through 2012. What is worth noting is the fact that, as is true for all categories of products, used merchandise is sold online as well as through retail outlets. The sales figures presented in the graphic do not include online sales of used merchandise, think eBay… We suspect that if those sales were added to the sales made through retail outlets, the significance of a shift towards used would be even more striking.

Today’s market size is the sales volume of used merchandise stores in the United States 2002 and 2012.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2002 and 2012
Market size: $9.5 and $13.4 billion respectively
Source: Lindsay VanHulle, “As Recession Alters Shopper Attitudes, Secondhand Shops Thrive,” Lansing State Journal, August 25, 2013, pages 1E, 3E. The graphic was made with data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s series of reports on the retail trade sector, specifically: “Estimated Annual Sales of U.S. Retail and Food Services Firms by Kind of Business: 1992 Through 2011,” released March 29, 2013 and available here.
Original source: First Research and the U.S. Bureau of the Census
Posted on August 28, 2013

Co-ops

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Interest in cooperatives is on the rise as people look to community-rooted alternatives to the dominance of huge, global banks, enormous retailing giants with little link to the local community, and empty main street store fronts. Cooperatives, or co-ops, are nonprofit businesses of various types such as credit unions and stores. These co-ops are created when members pool money in order to set up, manage and run the organizations on behalf of their members. Today’s market size is the estimated number of such cooperatives in the United States and the estimated value of the revenue they generate annually as of 2010.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: Forecast for 2010
Market size: 29,000 Co-ops generating $654 billion in revenues
Source: Amy Cortese, “Buying Underwear, Along With the Whole Store,” The New York Times, November 13, 2011, page B1, available online here.
Original source: University of Wisconsin
Posted on November 14, 2011

Time Banks

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In the 1980s while at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Dr. Edgar S. Cahn, a civil rights lawyer and activist, conceived the time banking system, a modern-day bartering system. For each hour members provide services to other members, they are credited with one hour of time that they can then use to request services from other members. Cahn came back to the United States to implement his idea and time banks popped up all across the USA in inner city neighborhoods over the next decade.

Soon Japan took interest and by the mid-1990s interest was building in the United Kingdom. The first time bank in the United Kingdom was started in 1998. According to TimeBanking UK, there are currently hundreds of time banks—although in a modified version from what Cahn conceived—operating in Japan. In the United Kingdom there are 105 active time banks and 131 in development. Since then, time banking has become popular in many more countries.

The market size presented below represents the number of time banks in the United States that are members of TimeBanks USA (founded by Edgar S. Cahn) and the MI Alliance of Timebanks.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2011
Market size: 92
Source: “TimeBanks USA Member Directory,” TimeBanks USA, available online here; “TimeBanks throughout Michigan,” MI Alliance of Timebanks, available online here; “About > History,” TimeBanking UK, available online here; “About Time Banking UK,” TimeBanking UK, available online here; “‘TimeBanks’ Sprouting Up in Metro Detroit,” CBS Detroit, June 22, 2011, available online here.