Bartering For Goods & Services Gains Ground As Economy Struggles

By Allison Bruce
 
CAMARILLO, CALIFORNIA — Josef Vega is an experienced barterer. He’s traded his upholstering skills - he has items on sale at Luxe Emporium in Ventura - for a place to stay for a few weeks. He’s offered business analysis in exchange for other goods and services. He’s worked out a series of exchanges that gets him the money he needs to pay his rent each month.

The Ventura, California resident expects more people will turn to bartering as the economy worsens. “I ask people, ‘If you don’t have the money, is there something we can work out?,’ ” Vega said. As long as you’re adaptable and do your homework on whom you’re doing business with, it can be a positive transaction for both parties, he said.

Barter stretches back as far as human history. Broken down to its most basic form, one person would trade something of value for something another person wanted to trade.

In the current system of trade, paper dollars and coins became placeholders to show the agreed-upon value of an items bought and sold.

But in the current economy, trade of actual goods and services could be coming back toward its bartering roots as businesses seek ways to move inventory, build customers, or get what they need for less.

In the past 18 months, trade exchanges - organizations that help to broker barter deals - have had a 10 percent to 12 percent increase in new membership, said Tom McDowell, executive director of the National Association of Trade Exchanges. The number of transactions is up as well.

A main reason for the boost in barter deals is that businesses still have inventory and capacity, while still managing expenses. What they’re lacking are customers, he said.

Today’s technology means barter exchanges can bring together businesses and give them dollar-for-dollar valued credits for “selling” their goods and services. They can use those credits to buy goods and services from other member businesses.

There are between 400 and 500 trade exchanges in the United States, representing about 350,000 businesses doing about $3.5 billion to $4 billion a year in barter trades.


Josef N. Vega has offered his upholstering skills and business analysis services for barter. "I'm trying to turn furniture more into a piece of art," says the Ventura man. "I look at it like a blank canvas." Vega says sometimes selling stuff is not the better paycheck. Vega said he made $10,000 in two weeks through bartering on a trip from Minnesota to California.

Vega said barter ties in closely with the need for people to go back to thinking about fundamentals. It’s about necessities, not the latest gadget or status car. As a way of doing business, barter takes a bit of attitude adjustment, he said, but there are plenty of opportunities once you look at things differently.

Barter was a recent brainstorm for Lynne Castillo. She and a friend run a housecleaning business and were in need of someone to set up or fix electronics, computers and similar things. “My brother’s getting sick of me asking him to fix things,” Castillo said.

She thought barter might be the solution, trading housecleaning for the services of someone technically inclined who could step in and help out on occasion. The Westlake Village resident posted the proposed trade on Craigslist. With the tough economy, she thought it might be the best approach for everybody.

“Money’s kind of tight right now,” she said. Castillo said she thinks people are open to more options than they were before and may be more receptive to bartering. “I’m assuming we’re both going to be happy with the deal,” she said. “Otherwise, it’s not going to go on.”