Tired of Things That Break? BuyMeOnce Finds Products That Last

Tired of Things That Break? BuyMeOnce Finds Products That Last It’s either ironic or the most fitting turnabout ever: A former advertising creative copywriter has launched BuyMeOnce, a site aimed at getting us all to buy less stuff. In March 2013, Tara Button, who wrote TV commercial script ideas, billboards, newspaper and radio advertisements, had, as one of her advertising clients, Le Creuset, the French cookware company. Made with cast iron, its products are incredibly durable, and most come with a lifetime limited warranty. She owned a few herself. “I was just thinking, Wouldn’t it be wonderful if more things were like this wonderful pot I have? I was so in love with it,” she says by Skype from her London flat. “One of the things I loved about it was the feeling that I never had to buy a pot again. That was off my to-do list forever. And how wonderful it was that I never had to replace it or throw it out, which is environmentally perfect.” She searched for a site that sold products that were built to last, but didn’t find one. She registered the domain name BuyMeOnce.com in March 2013, but because she was trying to write a children’s book, had a full-time job and was trying to have a life, “I tried really hard to ignore the idea,” she says. For six months, she tried to figure out how such a venture could make money but eventually realized she wanted the site to exist even if she didn’t profit from it.