When you have hundreds or thousands of stores, like say Wal-Mart, you can afford to drop your prices because you can count on bulk sales in order to make a profit. After all, is there any place in the United States that does not have a Wal-Mart? When it comes to the self storage industry there is no economy-of-scale safety net.
There are close to 50,000 self storage facilities around the United States and roughly 3,800 Wal-Mart stores which would make it seem like the economies of scale would be in favor of self storage companies. However, while all Wal-Mart stores are part of the same corporation, that is not the case for self storage facilities.
About 10 percent of all facilities are owned by five different companies. Approximately 30,000 companies own and operate the remaining 45,000, many operating just one or two facilities.
Since so many are stand-alone facilities, there is no safety in numbers should a facility struggle to build up a clientele, especially with all the competition there is. That makes it vital to the success of the facility that it be able to provide as much service as possible to tenants.
One that has become almost the norm for facilities now is climate control. With the extreme weather that can occur in some areas, some belongings can get damaged under extreme heat or cold. Good climate control takes more than just a heat or air conditioning unit; a humidifier is essential.
”We typically stay at 100 percent occupancy on our climate controlled units from late May in to September or October. Many customers want the relief of not having to worry about the heat and the effect it could have on their belongings in a conventional unit,” says Micki Seay, manager of Colonial Mini Storage in Cleburne, Texas.
Most self storage facilities will do much more than climate control in order to stand out from the rest. Some have started to offer storage especially suited for records. Many of them offer wine storage as well, for the avid collector with a few cases or the novice/ beginner with a few quality bottles. There are even some facilities that will take deliveries for tenants.
Since moving stuff into the unit is often a big ordeal for tenants, it is not uncommon for self storage facilities to provide a truck to help tenants move their belongings in. It’s becoming more common to find self storage facilities that have partnered up with a local moving truck company as well.
Sources Used:
“It’s Not the Heat (or the Cold), it’s the Humidity!” SSA Globe; October 2011.
2011 SSA Fact Sheet; Self Storage Association.
About Us; Wal-Mart.