You Can Buy Refurbished Tech From Back Market In Person Now - Here's Where

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

Refurbished tech marketplace Back Market opened a US store.
Consumers tin trial utilized devices earlier purchasing them.
Back Market intends to curb nan upgrade rhythm and trim costs.

Back Market, nan online refurbished tech marketplace, offers buyers who want to prevention money connected electronics (and trim e-waste) good-as-new products repaired by experts. Starting past week, nan retailer has taken nan process to its first-ever brick-and-mortar store, wherever buyers tin shop for secondhand phones and laptops successful personification -- conscionable for illustration astatine an Apple Store.

Also: Is a refurbished MacBook viable successful 2025? I did nan math, and here's my master advice

The company's aviator shop opened its doors connected Oct. 1 successful New York City's Soho neighborhood, inviting consumers to spot and touch repaired devices earlier buying them.

"When group acquisition refurbished tech successful person, they spot nan quality, nan savings, and nan imaginable to unrecorded smarter," Back Market CEO Thibaud Hug de Larauze said successful nan release. "We judge this aviator tin spark existent spot and momentum for a much sustainable measurement forward."

Also: Should you bargain a refurbished iPad successful 2025? I did nan mathematics truthful you don't person to

Most used-tech retailers, specified arsenic Gazelle aliases Best Buy's outlet, beryllium chiefly online (though nan second does person immoderate refurbished tech in-store). The deficiency of an in-person acquisition tin create a grade of separation for buyers already unsure astir what they're getting and whether it's legitimate.

Local shops that bargain backmost and repair tech are independent, and truthful tin alteration wide successful position of standards and certifications. Being capable to interact pinch and trial a refurbished instrumentality earlier committing mightiness thief to adjacent nan user spot spread and summation nan already increasing request for repaired technology.

Sustainability and costs savings

The shop won't conscionable connection tablets and phones; Back Market said it will big repair services, events, workshops, and much successful nan abstraction that thrust toward its ngo to found a information system successful user tech and undermine nan industry's changeless push to upgrade. Back Market's goal, it said, is to "make sustainability practical, rewarding, and easy to enactment on."

Also: I tested nan iPhone 17 Pro Max, and this characteristic unsocial justifies an upgrade from nan 16

The biggest perk for consumers, however, is price. Refurbished tech tin beryllium up to 70% cheaper than caller devices; astatine nan clip of writing, an iPhone 15 Plus, usually $729, goes for $493 at Black Market. That's earlier you waste and acquisition successful an aged device, which brings nan value down moreover more. Even a refurbished iPhone 15 Plus from Apple is still $619.

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"As inflation, tariffs, and rising tech prices make shoppers progressively cost-conscious, refurbished tech offers a smarter way forward," Back Market said successful nan release. In April, during nan first activity of nan Trump administration's tariff panic and speculation astir nan effect connected device prices, Hug de Larauze told maine nan institution saw a threefold uptick successful demand.

Lauren Benton, Back Market's US wide manager, noted that nan shop intends to thrust liking among US buyers, only 5% of whom bargain utilized tech.

Also: Tariff-proof tech? Back Market's refurbished devices support prices down

"In Europe, refurbished tech is already a $50 cardinal market, and nan aforesaid displacement is underway successful nan US," she said successful nan release. "We spot younger consumers starring nan charge, pinch 60% of Gen Z trying refurbished for nan first time."

In-store, Back Market said visitors tin expect an interactive situation to show caller and refurbished tech apart, grading that breaks down nan why down nan costs of each refurbished device, cleaning and repair services, and trade-in support that "highlight[s] nan ongoing worth of what group already own." The shop besides offers Google Fi Wireless plans.

Visit nan store

Back Market's aviator shop is now unfastened astatine 449 Broadway successful Manhattan, and will beryllium unfastened until Dec. 21 (just successful clip for vacation shopping). Learn more here.

For now, nan shop is apt not permanent, but much pop-ups are connected nan way.

"This is simply a impermanent aviator designed for learning. We want to understand really group shop, what questions they ask, and what excites them astir refurbished tech," Benton told ZDNET. "While we're excited astir nan consequence we've seen successful New York, we're already exploring different markets -- you'll beryllium seeing america successful Chicago very soon."

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