About

Bye Buy! Rethinking The Way We Shop has been designed to test ideas on reducing our consumption, engaging more with people in a retail environment and leading a more sustainable lifestyle. Nothing is bought or sold at ByeBuy! and four major activities have been developed to test these ideas: Swap Shop, Story Exchange, Repair Deli and Slow Market.

Swap Shop

The Swap Shop addresses how we value the items we have and our need for new ones. The swapping of old items for others reduces our consumption of new goods but also questions our value for the things we currently own and the ones we want or need. Knowing more about the history of a product we are purchasing adds value, products in the Bye Buy! shop will come complete with a history of the former owner.

Story Exchange
Occasionally we buy things for the emotional reaction it gives us – usually to make us feel happy – the term retail therapy has been derived from the uplifting feeling buying something can give us. However these emotional reactions are often short lived but the product we have bought remains. The Story Exchange questions the need for a product to give us this emotional charge and replaces the product with story or a joke and something we can continue to exchange with others prolonging the emotional reaction.

Repair Deli

Often we purchase new products because an old one is broken or needs repair because often the costs for repairing are too expensive, we don’t have the skills to repair it ourselves or know where to get help, and the broken item is treated as waste. The Repair Deli will hold a number of open and organized workshops to provide you with some of the tools and skills you may need to repair a number of different items, revaluing them and preventing them going to waste.

Slow Market
It is very easy to purchase practically any item by walking into a shop, exchanging money and walking
out with it with little thought to the materials or the time and effort used to make it. The whole transaction can take just minutes. The Slow Market endeavours to slow down this whole process and
asks customers to either order the making of their product for a later pick up or to make their own in a workshop both using found and recycled materials.