How many of us have been told at one time or another that we don’t appreciate what we have? Did the accuser follow that statement up by talking about how when they were kids that they used to walk to school in the snow up hill, both ways (and they liked it)?
As crazy as those people tend to sound, the message they are trying to get across is a simple and important one about appreciating what you have. Part of that appreciation comes from understanding where you came from, and that is true for businesses like the self storage industry.
There are some that believe the first self storage facilities date back to China roughly 2,000 years ago while there are others that trace back to 18th century England. The origins of the modern self storage industry date back to 1964 and a small town built up around the local oil boom, Odessa, Texas.
According to some the story is pretty simple:
"They just decided to build a bunch of garages in one day. They were able to rent them out. They built more. They rented them. Someone else caught on and did the same."
Odessa, in the early 1960s, was one of many small towns in the Lone Star state that lived and died according to the ups and downs of the oil industry. The work is one that definitely requires a number of tools to be done safely and right.
Russ Williams and his stepson, Bob Munn, thought that it would be nice to have a place to store them (their tools nearby where they would be accessible and secure. So they decided to open up a new facility made for storing things (the first self storage facility), and called it A-1 U-Store-It U-Lock-It U-Carry-the-Key.
The current self storage industry has become a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States alone with approximately 50,000 self storage facilities around the country. In 2010, revenue for the industry cleared $20 billion in the United States alone.
Nowadays, self storage units do so much more than simply store your belongings. Storage units now come specially built with climate controlled capability. Units are now outfitted with specialty storage (i.e. wine, records, etc.) in mind. Some facilities will accept deliveries for tenants, will often have packing supplies on hand and can even lend you a truck to help you move.
They will just about everything, but move your belongings in for you (some will probably do that for the right price). This is definitely a far cry from where the industry began.
Sources Used:
“History of Self Storage: From Storage Doors to Storage Wars.” Self Storage News; October 2011.
“Self-Storage Nation: Americans are storing more stuff than ever.” Slate.com; 18 July 2005.
2011 SSA Fact Sheet; Self Storage Association.