Why Rent-To-Own Became a Bad Deal
The rent-to-own retail model, exemplified by Rent-a-Center, evolved from a mainstream model in the U.K. to one widely seen as predatory in the U.S. At what point did the model break?
A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail.
Did you spend Black Friday and Cyber Monday buying lots of junk?
Lucky you. Whether your addiction of choice was Michaels, Macy’s, or Massdrop, hopefully you found just the right kind of crap.
Of course, one of the key ways for retailers to sell crap is to draw people in with a TV, a laptop, or something else that’s shiny with a screen. But what if you’re trying to simply make ends need and you simply need a TV set or furniture?
One popular model for getting such equipment is through a rent-to-own service. But those kinds of firms — including the best-known, Rent-a-Center — carry a long shadow. But it wasn’t always that way.
Let’s highlight the long, unusual history of renting to own. Where we’re going, we don’t need credit.
