• Point, click, save: the rise of the share economy

    From freebies to crowdfunding, websites facilitate all kinds of deals
  • STOCKTON - Jay Rivera's 60-cup coffee pot shows what the share economy is all about.
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    Rivera, 42, got the coffee maker for free using a website called freecycle.org. He uses it during Neighborhood Watch meetings he hosts at his home on Rose Street not far from Victory Park. And during those meetings, he and his neighbors are likely to discuss information, garden tools or house plants they've exchanged or lent using several other websites such as NeighborGoods.net or NextDoor.com.
    The trendy term for it is the "share economy." Scholars sometimes refer to it as "collaborative consumption." It depends on the power of networked computers to push down the cost for people to consummate all kinds of deals, ranging from lending tools to renting out a vacation cabin or even financing the purchase of tons of grapes to produce boutique wine.
    Some of the most high-profile share economy sites like airbnb.com were founded in the Bay Area, and many, such as the service-exchange site taskrabbit.com, still operate almost exclusively in monied coastal cities.
    But the share economy is developing as well in Stockton, the Central Valley and the Mother Lode, according to an informal survey of websites and interviews with users.
    One example is Jeffery Stai, the owner of Twisted Oak Winery in Vallecito. He finances grape purchases for about a quarter of his wine production using an online crowdfunding company called Naked Wines.
    "They started it in England," Stai said of Naked Wines. "It has been successful. This last year they brought it over to the U.S."
    Using the Naked Wines website, thousands of "angels" can pony up $40 a month each to support various boutique wine makers, such as Stai. Then Naked Wines fronts the money to Stai to contract with grape growers and produce wine.
    The Angels, in turn, can use the money they put into the effort toward purchases of the wine. Because Naked Wines provides a ready made list of customers/angels, Stai's marketing costs are virtually eliminated.
    That means the angels get their Mediterranean varietals at below typical market costs, and Stai can spend more of his time winemaking.
    "It allows me to buy more grapes and make more efficient use of my winery. That is probably the No. 1 thing it does for me," Stai said.
    Economists refer to collaborative consumption strategies as "disruptive" because the extremely low cost of online transactions can displace established business models. Neighbors who can lend each other rarely used power tools and ladders won't have to rent or buy those items. Businesses using crowd funding won't need to borrow the money at interest from a bank.
    That change is also evident with airbnb.com, one of the most widely used share economy practices in the region.
    Doreen Avila, 57, of Morada, said she formerly used a property management service to rent out a vacation cabin she and her husband Gerald own in Arnold.
    Last May, they switched to airbnb.com, and have found that their costs are lower and that the cabin is rented more often.
    "We have been impressed. We have been impressed with the people who stay there," Avila said. "We haven't had any problems. We've been very blessed."
    Sites like airbnb.com or couchsurfing.com, in which strangers make arrangements to visit each other with no money exchanging hands at all, offer a variety of ways that participants can determine who they will trust and exchange with.
    Generally, both the travelers and the hosts post profiles and the site documents their record of exchanges/visits/rentals complete with comments from those with whom they've had dealings.
    "The people when they rent it, when they book it, most of them are members already so you can go in and look at their profile as well and see how they have been with the previous places they have rented," Avila said.
    Increased trust and cooperation among neighbors is also one of the benefits of the websites now being used among neighbors in the Victory Park neighborhood, Rivera said. Using NextDoor.com, for example, Rivera said he is able to track messages in real time showing when a potentially troublesome person is walking down the street, casing homes.
    "We had an excellent series (of postings) going not too long ago when the beloved Victory Park turkey died, and there was a lot of information going on about that," Rivera said.
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