Perspective
How Amazon Could Transform the Tiny House Movement
Could the e-commerce giant help turn small-home living from a niche fad into a national housing solution?
If you need to buy a house, why not try Amazon? Since 2015, consumers have been using the e-commerce platform to buy garden sheds and workshops. And in May, the Allwood Solvalla came online. It’s a 172-square foot sunroom with floor-to-ceiling windows, subtly marketed as a tiny house. Soon after its internet debut, the kit promptly sold out.
The structure, which marketing materials suggested two adults could build in eight hours, ran $7,250. But online reviewers panned it: One critic characterized the structure as a “[g]orified dog kennel”; another review simply read “This is dumb.”