Bling Yourself – You can look like Magic Juan and be broke at the same time!
Yeah, it’s THAT pathetic…
Are you almost broke? Does the slumping economy have you wearing last season gear? Your bling just don’t shine as it used to? … no problem! Michele Krause has the answer to all your superficial needs.
The founder of BlingYourself.com says her customer base has grown between 20 and 40 percent a month since she launched her jewelry-rental business last July, and that the economic slowdown has had “no impact” on the number of new customers or rentals. Another such enterprise, From Bags to Riches, which rents and sells handbags, is even expanding, preparing to launch spinoffs in Canada, South Africa, and the United Kingdom within the next three months.
“We think our business will increase fairly dramatically this year because it is a value-driven proposition,” says Sam Mangiere, co-founder of From Bags to Riches. Top-line sales growth for his three-year-old company was up 57 percent so far this year, compared with the same period in 2007. Mangiere says about 50 percent of the growth has come from rentals.
These kinds of businesses cater to two basic types of consumers, says Greg Shove, C.E.O. of Halogen Guides, a luxury-trend tracker: aspirational buyers trading up to a product or lifestyle they cannot afford or consumers who can afford to buy but want more choices. Even in a protracted recession, Shove says, rental companies benefit because they “make luxury more affordable.”
So, who cares if you have to look for food on the alley behind the neighborhood’s Chinese restaurant if you can look like Magic Juan here while doing it!
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