Section 4 • Knowing Your Customer


while changing residence ranks high. For millennials, this is the most often reported reason for storage (44.3 percent). In fact, this age group ranked highest in this category while the other three age groups reported this as the second highest reason for storage.


When looking at the items stored, we see some similarities across all four generation groups for those items stored more than 40 percent of the time.


The Greatest Generation ranked storing items that you


don’t have room for at home as the number one reason for renting a self-storage unit (46.5 percent), followed by baby boomers at 42.6 percent. Approximately 37 percent of Gen-X renters stated this as the number one reason, while millennials stated this as the second most important reason for storing.


What Is Stored? Knowing what items are being stored is always beneficial to self-storage operators. According to the survey, 48.6 percent of tenants indicated that indoor furniture was the number one item they stored. This is down from 60 per- cent in 2014. Clothing and kitchenware are the next two most often stored items at 44.8 percent and 44.7 percent respectively. This is followed by pictures, photos, and paintings (42.3 percent).


Household supplies and seasonal or holi-


day items are the next most commonly stored items—both at approximately 40 percent. Other frequently stored items include:


• Books and magazines (34.8 percent) • Towels, blankets, and linens (33.2 percent) • Tools (32.8 percent) • Collectibles or hobby-related items (32.2 percent)


• Sporting equipment (28 percent) • Electronics such as computers and stereos (25.7 percent)


• Outdoor furniture stored seasonally (24.2 percent)


• Family records (21 percent) • Children’s toys (16.3 percent) • Major appliances such as refrigerators and dryers (14 percent)


Stored on a much smaller scale are items such


as non-perishable food (6.7 percent), and vehi- cles such as cars and boats (4.7 percent). Other miscellaneous items are stored nearly five per- cent of the time.


When looking at the items stored, we see


some similarities across all four generation groups for those items stored more than 40 percent of the time. Ranking highest are baby boomers who say that 54.5 percent of what they store is indoor furniture, followed by kitchenware (49.5 percent), holiday or season- al items (49.3 percent), and pictures, photos, or paintings (47.1 percent). Boomers report vehicles such as cars and boats as their least stored item.


60 Self-Storage Almanac 2018


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