My grandpa's advice about bartering turned out to be a huge waste of time

Honestly, my grandpa told me last summer that bartering would be the way to go after the economy crashes. He said I should stock up on things like canned goods and tools to trade with neighbors. I spent about $300 on extra cans of beans and a hand saw, thinking I was being smart. But then I tried trading a jar of pickles for someone's lawn mowing service and they just laughed at me. Turns out nobody in my neighborhood wants to barter, they just want cash or Venmo. Has anyone else tried this and actually had it work out?

3 comments

3 Comments

amy_west24d ago

$300 on canned beans and a hand saw is a lot, but I think the real issue is your grandpa's advice was from a different time. Barter works best in tight-knit communities where everyone knows each other's skills and needs. Like, if you live in a small rural town where Old Man Joe fixes tractors for a dozen eggs, that's one thing. But in a regular neighborhood with Venmo and Amazon Prime, nobody's gonna trade a jar of pickles for lawn care when they can just pay a kid $20. You'd need to find a specific group of people who are already into bartering, like on a local Facebook group or at a co-op, where folks swap homemade bread for babysitting hours. Otherwise it's just awkward and nobody takes it seriously.

shane_hayes24d ago

Completely agree with @amy_west, barter really does need that trust network to work.

ivan_murphy8024d ago

Have you tried starting small with just one neighbor? I found that works way better than trying to organize a whole group at once. Bought a guy down the street a six pack once for helping me haul an old fridge out of my basement. Now we trade favors all the time and he even threw in his pressure washer for a weekend when mine broke down. Once you get that first swap going, trust builds naturally without having to make it weird or formal.