by Kim Kilpatrick
July 19, 2011 4:49 PM
If there is one thing that is universal, it is the fact that people like stuff. Stuff is what we go to work to earn money for. It’s what we ask for at Christmas time and on birthdays. It’s what we treat ourselves to when we get the big promotion or when we are trying to cheer up after not getting the promotion. The one constant that goes with a love of stuff is that eventually we all run out of room to store it all.
So the big question becomes one of two things. Do you want to get rid of some of your stuff or do you want to find more space to store your stuff?
That is where the self storage industry comes in hand. Need an extra closet or a whole extra living room? Check out your local self storage facility and they will have it for you.
The industry has become quite successful in the United States. According to some estimates there are around 46,500 primary self storage facilities in the U.S.; in 2010 they generated approximately $20 billion in revenue.
Self storage is a service that is starting to catch on more and more in other countries (after all, we all like stuff, right?). Canada has about 3,000 and Australia around 1,000 self storage facilities as well. The industry has even started to branch out in some unlikely places like the Philippines.
“My mother needed to keep old financial statements that needed to be reviewed once in a while,” said Carlo Coronel. “Our compound is full of big-cut warehouses. Since we have a 500-sq m warehouse, we divided it into 30 self-storage units like condo units. And, with the rise in condos, we saw the business potential.”
Coronel operates the Safehouse Storage Facility and has done so for about 18 months now. The self storage facility is one of the first on the small island nation. He says that people there are just like anywhere else; they like their stuff. With many family members often living together a self storage facility can provide some much needed space at home.
Just like any business though, he says there are challenges to it.
“People look for service,” he said. “The complicated part is the logistics—coordinating the trucks in bringing the things from the house to the unit. Everything needs to be flawless.”
It doesn’t matter where you are be it a consumer driven nation like the United States, down under in the Outback, or in the western Pacific Ocean like the Philippines. The self storage industry is there when you need it.
Sources Used:
“Self Storage Comes to the Philippines.” Philippine Daily Inquirer; 20 July 2011.
2011 SSA Fact Sheet; Self Storage Association.