The business of storing stuff
We own more stuff than ever before. Stephanie Mitchell talks to those in the self-storage industry who take care of our excess.
When Ray Hill opened his first storage business 13 years ago there were only eight facilities in Taranaki. Seven years later, when he opened his second, there were 23.
For Hill, running a self-storage business in New Plymouth provides the perfect work-life balance.
‘‘It’s very passive. You’ve got time to do other stuff, potter away in the shed, go fishing, go away on holiday and answer the phone if you’re in Fiji. It’s a very flexible business to be in,’’ he says.
Hill started Surf City Storage after years of being a mechanic. He’d decided he was ‘‘sick of working on people’s cars and not getting paid for it’’.
Since then he has witnessed the storage market in Taranaki become saturated.
‘‘The population isn’t growing enough to keep up with the amount of businesses there are.
‘‘A few years ago it was growing. We used to have 105 tenants four months ago and now it’s dropped to 85.’’
Hill sold Surf City Storage and now runs Alcatraz Storage out of a large shed on Centennial Drive, which he bought for the purpose of starting the business.
‘‘The biggest complaint at Surf Highway was people had to double handle their goods. When you’ve got to move you’ve got to load it in the trailer or truck, take it to storage and then unload it into the unit. So we came up with the idea that we bring the unit out to you to pack and then bring it back.’’
He has 65 units, which he calls cells to go along with the Alcatraz theme. He builds them himself out of plywood in about six hours. They cost $140 a month to rent.
‘‘Capital outlay is huge. You know: get the building, build the forklift, build a trailer and all that, but once it gets going it can be a good return.’’
When people can’t pay their rent, which Hill says only happens once or twice a year, he gets to take to their cell with bolt cutters.
‘‘A lot of them are just full of household contents: old suits, shoes, kids’ bikes, family photos for five years; storing $35,000 worth of s..t.’’
Dr Sy Taffel, a senior lecturer in English and Media Studies at Massey University, who has studied consumerism and environmental issues closely, says there’s an increase in storage facilities because people own more stuff than ever before.
However, it’s causing serious repercussions for the planet.
‘‘The planet’s resources are being used faster than they are being reproduced and it’s been getting worse year on year. New Zealand is above average in terms of consumption.
‘‘We’ve never had this much stuff in the past, it’s something that’s quite new.’’
Taffel says environmentally destructive items need to be taxed.
He also says shows like the Netflix craze Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, which sees Kondo go into people’s homes and help them declutter, are actually doing the planet more harm than good.
‘‘The issue should not be getting rid of them, it’s stop buying them and producing them in the first place. The Marie Kondo-like throw out all your old stuff and then buy more and then clear all of that out is part of an incredibly ecologically destructive cycle that really needs to end.
‘‘We’re culturally ingrained to think we need more stuff in addition to the fact there is a multi-billion dollar marketing industry whose sole purpose is to sell people s... that they don’t need and that’s a really big problem.’’
Although the self-storage industry is relatively new in New Zealand, in America it’s worth $38 billion, with one in 11 people paying for extra space to keep their possessions.
In September AA Insurance found that five per cent of the 1100 Kiwis they surveyed paid for off site storage.
In 2016 Steve Burmester turned his second-hand store on Gover St, New Plymouth, into the high-tech Central City Storage.
He had a bit of experience with storage units through the secondhand business.
‘‘I’d get called every three of four months to go to a lock up where someone hadn’t paid and value their stuff so they could pay for rent in arrears.
‘‘I’d lift the door up and start laughing. Everything was damp and rotten.’’
So, he thought if he was going to do it, he would do it right.
Half a million dollars later, Burmester created a state-of-theart secure lock up which can be run completely from his cell phone.
Of the 49 units he has, for which he charges between $150 – $245 a month, only five are empty.
Like Hill, Burmester enjoyed the fact that apart from being on site to sign people up, everything else can be done from anywhere in the world.
‘‘I was in Bali for my brother’s
60th and someone called wanting to look around so I said ‘give me five minutes’ and I quickly raced into a internet cafe, went on to my phone, pulled up the camera and saw him standing there, opened the doors, he had a look around and then closed the door behind him.
‘‘He had no idea I was in Bali.’’ Burmester’s business caters to a different league of storers than your average hoarders.
Due to the central location he sees a lot of people using it who are living in the centre of town with no storage available.
‘‘I’ve got an electrician who comes in here every morning at
7.24am, picks up his gear for the day and is out the door by 7.27am.
‘‘There are people storing golf clubs, surfboards, their bikes. They come down, go for a ride, come back, drop it off. Nothing comes home, there’s no clutter.’’
He saw opening a self-storage business as a way to make some money without it becoming his job. ‘‘Everything is key fobs, automatic sensors, automatic lighting, doors automatically close