I remember that my school rented out mini-fridges to students. It was about $150 to rent a dingy, used fridge for the year. The cost to buy a similar fridge was about $100. So of course, students would buy fridges, then discard them at the end of the year. Piles and piles of mini-fridges.
Honestly I don’t remember the exact price so I may be exaggerating the cost disparity… but I am not exaggerating the pile of fridges so the disparity was certainly there.
My school did that too, but the rental was substntially cheaper than the cost of buying one. There was a deposit too, to encourage returning them, which may have encumbered more money than a new one cost but if you returned it clean it was cheaper than buying and you didn't have to deal with it over the summer.
Mini-fridges are so cheap now it probably doesn't make much economic sense to rent one.
