2008 Rent-to-Own Industry Year in Review

RTO Online, the rent-to-own industry's leading source of news and information, today released its list of the Top Rent to Own Industry Stories of 2008. As predicted, the news was dominated by politics in 2008. But unlike we predicted a year ago, it was inside politics and not Beltway politics that drew the most reader attention.

The top rent-to-own industry story of 2008 was the Association of Progressive Rental Organization's (APRO) decision to merge tradeshows with TRIB (The Rental Industry Buying Group). The seven story series published on this single topic by RTO Online generated nearly as much email and buzz as all other stories combined for the year. See links to the full series below.

Why All the Buzz? Unlike most retail sub sectors, the rent-to-own industry has only one nationally recognized trade association. Most observers saw the non-profit association's decision as interfering in the competitive process by giving a business advantage to one associate member (vendor) over another. The APRO/TRIB tradeshow merger vote by APRO's board of directors resulted in the formation of completely separate trade group, The Nationwide Rental Coalition (NRC) that will focus on supporting state and federal legislative initiatives, an area that until now was the sole purview of APRO.

In hindsight, what was first viewed by some as a harmful split may eventually benefit the entire rental industry. Competition, although painful at times, forces us all to be at the top of our game. Having two groups vying for the attention of rental dealers interested in legislative issues will make both groups perform at a higher level. There is already evidence of the advantages of competition. NRC activities have pushed APRO to get more involved in organizing state associations that have been dormant for years. As a result of both groups efforts, more rent-to-own professionals are involved in the political process than ever before. No matter what the cause, that cannot be a bad thing.

RTO Online published 126 audio podcasts, 118 video and nearly 5,000 photos from industry events in 2008. The most viewed photo of the year was this shot taken at the 2008 Aaron's National Managers Meeting. The most downloaded RTO screensaver was 2008 Aarons Talladega. The RTO Online Rent to Own Industry Photo Album now contains over 15,000 photos from various events.

RTOonline.com served over 70 million page views in 2008 versus 52 million in 2007 and continues to be the primary source of news for rent-to-own pros worldwide.

RTO Online is the official channel for Rent-to-Own Industry News and the only independent source of news for the rent-to-own, rental-purchase, lease-purchase trade. RTO Online (Rent to Own Online) represents the choice of the entire RTO Industry for trusted information, as it happens.

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