I’m going to send you into the weekend with a Vice article about a Used-Chair sales company. You heard that right, used chairs. Swivel Office Solutions, based in a nondescript warehouse an hour east of Manhattan, pivoted from sales of used office furniture for use in new office installations to buying up office equipment from companies closing their offices and then selling those items to individuals who are building work from home setups.
Want a multi-thousand-dollar standing desk? $600. Thousand-dollar Aeron chairs? $500 or less.
Here’s the key quote:
Traditionally, liquidating an office doesn’t come cheap, sometimes costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. But many companies had valuable desks and chairs. Where there was nice furniture, Swivel Office Solutions was willing to swoop in and offer to handle it for a fraction of what a moving company would charge because they were willing to take on the risk involved in storing the nicest furniture and then finding buyers themselves.
Why do we care?
This is an excellent example of a second-order effect being taken advantage of. I’ve talked about work from home and the impact on office space. The immediate effect is the changes to the companies themselves. But what about their vendors? The ecosystems around them of other companies that do business with them?
I liked this example because of its simplicity. That’s why we care – anticipating the changes based on new market conditions. A lot less moaning, a lot more pivoting. It’s the big thought for the weekend.