Most people end up accumulating dozens or hundreds of items that they only need a few times a year. In my case these are things like camping equipment, a soldering iron, an electric drill, paper cutter, etc. — but everybody has their own unique list. I’d much rather not have to keep track of all this infrequently-used inventory and instead rent it on demand, especially since I have limited storage space. Lending libraries for this type of stuff exist but are too high-friction to be popular today — it’s substantially easier to just buy something on Amazon than rent it from a local depot. I think with automated inventory management and (potentially) sidewalk delivery bots the cost and friction can be brought low enough to turn this into a popular and defensible subscription business.
I know that my sentiment isn't original, but I can't help but feel sad that this is essentially a startup idea that is only viable because it fills a hole created by the atomization of American society. What happened to borrowing a tool from your neighbor?
This is not to say that this is a bad idea, or that nobody needs this, or that people who prefer not to borrow tools from their neighbors are bad people, but it just feels like something is being lost.