The Sharing Depot is the first “things library” to pop up in the world, the concept is to check out things you don’t have such as tools or even board games!
The Sharing Depot was thought up by Ryan Dyment and Lawrence Alvarez as a way for people to stop buying things and start borrowing them instead.
This concept is great for minimalists, the environmentally conscious and people who just need something on a once-off basis.
The ‘stuff library’ would have regularly used things like sporting equipment, camping equipment, house party supplies, gaming and board games and tools just to name a few things.
The concept game to life after Toronto Canada’s successful “Tool Libraries” did so well! They had over 25,000 members using and returning various kinds of tools.
“Quickly it became a very talked about issue in Toronto, people were loving it: people who were looking for system change, people who were looking to reduce consumption, just as like, an alternative idea of how a society could function. But, our goal was never to just do tools, our goal was always to connect these issues on a larger scale.”
The concept is also great for people who cannot afford to pay full ticket prices on items they only use two or three times a year.
“A lot of people come to us based on price alone and that speaks directly to just how costly it is to live these days. A lot of people are precariously working, they’re not getting the kind of steady income and secure job that they used to.”
The library is one of many new concept stores designed to reduce waste! There are waste free stores popping up all over the world so hopefully this stuff library idea will pick up just as quickly!
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