One of the first jobs I got out of school was working in the Justice Court in Reno. All manner of crimes went through our building. One that really impressed me at the time was a young man, maybe 18-22 years old, who had looted some self storage facilities. Over a few months, he had broken into perhaps dozens of storage units, nobody was really sure how many, and trucked away other people’s possessions. He drove off with people’s property past gates and cameras and on-site managers and he did it over and over again. How did this young master mind defeat all the storage security systems? He rented a unit!
Renting a self storage unit is like putting your stuff in a gated community. You expect the gates, the cameras and the on-site staff to spot any strangers who do not belong and chase them off before they can do any mischief. Why don’t you worry about your neighbors? Because houses in gated communities are so expensive that people with the means to buy them generally do not need to steal other people’s
personal property to make ends meet. Thus, the price of the house is inherently selective on who your neighbors might be; you only worry about the strangers.
That does not happen in self storage communities. The Oregon State Penitentiary may keep a particularly troubling inmate under disciplinary segregation. At most storage facilities, that person can come in the day he is released and, if he can sign his name and hand over a month’s rent (or $1, depending on the promotions), rent a unit, get an access code for the gate, drive in and out past cameras without anybody caring, and put his hands on another customer’s door. All he has to do is defeat the lock and he is ready to load.
At Wilsonville Self
Storage, we have the cameras, the gate and the on-site personnel. Because we are a small facility with relatively low turnover of customers, and our staff have been with us for years, we are in a better position than most to identify who belongs on our lot and whether they are going in and out of the wrong unit. But the thing that makes us feel really good about our security is the background check. We check all applicants for financial and criminal malfeasance. It is a bit intrusive, which we hate, but we are not sharing the information with others and you can take comfort in knowing that all of your neighbors in the facility have gone through the same screening. With the background checks, we have developed a wonderful community of customers. We have had no robberies, no drama.
Why don’t more self storage facilities require a background check? The bottom line is that most facilities have done the cost benefit analysis and determined that they will make more money if they do not screen their customers: The first priority for most facilities is to fill open units. (For what they do after the unit is full, see last blog, “Once They Got Me, They Got me!”) The background check disqualifies some customers and it introduces a small cost and hurdle that may cause a few customers to look elsewhere even if they would have qualified. Thus, there is a cost for us in lost business by screening our customers. On the other hand, what does it cost the facility if your goods are stolen? Approximately nothing. Self Storage facilities put in their leases (ours too) that they are not responsible for lost or stolen items.
Maybe this is another example of how the national chains run a better optimized operation than small businesses like ours. For the customer who is willing to jump through one small hurdle, it adds a level of security and peace of mind that we believe is worth the price.
