In The New York Times Magazine: 1BOG

PANEL DISCUSSION
Buying into solar power — and to the potential appeal of collective buying.

This week in Consumed, a business that rounds of packs of consumers to make group buys of solar power.

Collective buying power has been harnessed in various ways in the past, but generally speaking the strategy has been marginal among contemporary American consumers, maybe because it doesn’t mesh well with the rugged individualist’s self-image.

Then again, in a cultural moment when many individuals aren’t feeling all that rugged, perhaps it makes sense that a company called 1BOG has put collective buying at the center of its business model.

Read the column in the April 5, 2009, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. The Times’ Consumed RSS feed is here. Consumed Facebook page — now with wall-posting! — is here.

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