Buy Nothing for Last-Minute Holiday Gifts

Business Wire, Dec 19, 2000

Business Editors

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 19, 2000

`Tis the night before Christmas, and the clock is ticking. Your pockets are nearly empty, but your gift list is brimming. All you're hearing is buy, buy, buy from every retail store and every shopping web site, and all you want is for the holidays to be over.

This year, there's a company that's saying something different: BUY NOTHING for the holidays.

rentanything is the web site suggesting that you give your friends and family a special rental this holiday season, a product that can be used and enjoyed or a service that can't be obtained easily anywhere else. In fact, rentanything believes so strongly in this environment-friendly way to celebrate the holidays that the company is letting suppliers list for free through March 31, 2001 and renters never have to pay any extra fees for renting.

"Imagine the surprise on your boyfriend's face when instead of giving him the usual aftershave you give him the gift of a Jaguar convertible. Sure, it's only for the weekend, but who wouldn't want to tool around the countryside, pretending to be a millionaire, if only for a little while?" asks Julie Gupta, chief operating officer of rentanything. Gupta is taking her own advice and giving her parents a service off the rentanything site: hand-drawn caricatures of her family.

"rentanything is a new dimension in community commerce, connecting people and helping them earn money as suppliers or save money as renters in ways never thought possible." Using rentanything to make the connection, people can rent items from sports cars to a neighbor's snowboard, services from voice lessons to dog sitters and experiences from mountain climbing to ski trip packages. "Renting anything is quick and easy, with everything on one convenient site. Everyone -- those who supply the goods and services, and those who use them -- gets something out of the deal," Gupta continues.

Gupta urges Bay Area residents to use their imaginations this holiday season and try a new, stress free way to celebrate the holidays. She notes, "www.rentanything.com went live on December 18th, just in time for the holidays and those last minute gift givers who want to buy nothing."