In a consumption economy, most people are looking for a good price, regardless of quality. But one young British entrepreneur is trying to help the environment and people's wallets with a website that researches and recommends products with lifetime guarantees.
Tara Button, 34, started BuyMeOnce.com in January. Within six weeks the site had more than 400,000 visitors, there to browse umbrellas, tools, cooking pots and even tweezers — all with guarantees from their manufacturers.
BuyMeOnce does not sell any products directly, but rather provides links to purchase items from the manufacturer or retail sites like Amazon. Button gets a fee for clicks only when she has signed a deal with the merchant.
"No one likes to feel ripped off," said Button, who had a job in advertising in London until last month. She got the idea for her site because she is frustrated that manufacturers keep downgrading the quality of their products.
"My aim is that if people start buying more durable things, companies will start making their products last longer," she said.
Reuters talked to Button about how she plans to stoke a durability revolution.
Q: How do you find products for your site?
A: It's really super easy to search by the cheapest thing. But looking for the most durable thing, that's going to take hours and going through the fine print of the guarantee information. I do that for people, and I put stuff on the site that is best in show. At least it makes it a bit easier for people to think about those choices.
