Cash for Teakettles

One of a number of trade-in schemes which mimic the “cash for clunkers” program.

The Times’s Julie Scelfo reported on a profusion of trade-in schemes (similar to the government’s cash for clunkers program) popping up across the States:

At Ruby & Quiri, a family-run home furnishings center in Johnstown, N.Y., customers receive a $25 gift card for every piece of used furniture they turn in, or $50 for upgrading an appliance to an Energy Star model. The clunker is picked up when the new item is delivered, and depending on its condition is either donated or broken down for recycling.

At Pacific Manufacturing in Phoenix, which sells custom upholstered goods to interior designers, a used piece of furniture earns clients 10 percent off the purchase of any new furniture item or mattress and, after the clunker is delivered to a local charity, a tax-deduction receipt.

Similar programs have sprung up in places like Portland, Ore., and Lexington, Ky., along with variations like Credit for Clunkers at 1-800-Mattress, Cash for Couches at Lillian August in Connecticut, and what some retailers are calling Cash for Teakettles, which Chantal Cookware Corp. will introduce next month.