At year-end 2019, there were 47,539 self-storage facilities in the United States on industrial and commercial land parcels. There is more than 1.9 billion square feet of available self-storage in space in U.S. The six largest publicly traded storage operators (four REITs, and U-Haul own or operate approximately 18% of self-storage facilities. The industry is worth $38 billion in 2018. More recently, in many metropolitan cities where competition among storage companies is fierce, better parcels of land near residential and commercial areas are being converted into self-storage once approved by zoning panels. Companies are becoming more adept at manufacturing these modular storage units, allowing operators to get up and running quickly. To support the need, businesses like PODS are expected to enter the modular construction effort as well.
Mailstorage or on-demand storage is where customers' items are kept together in a warehouse rather than providing each customer with a storage unit.
Self-storage businesses lease a variety of unit sizes to residential and business customer/tenants. Popular unit sizes (with width shown first and depth shown second) include:
- 5 ft × 5 ft (1.5 m × 1.5 m), about the size of a large Telephone booth
- 5 ft × 10 ft (1.5 m × 3.0 m), about the size of a large walk-in closet,
- 10 ft × 10 ft (3.0 m × 3.0 m), about the size of a child's bedroom (as of 2015, 10x10's are the most common storage unit size, making up 16% of the distribution in the U.S.),[9]
- 10 ft × 15 ft (3.0 m × 4.6 m), about the size of a living room,
- 10 ft × 20 ft (3.0 m × 6.1 m), about the size of a one-car garage,
- 15 ft × 20 ft (4.6 m × 6.1 m), about the size of a large master bedroom, and
- 20 ft × 20 ft (6.1 m × 6.1 m), about the size of a two-car garage.
The storage units are typically window-less, walled with concrete cinder blocks or corrugated metal, and lockable by the renter. Each unit is usually accessed by opening a roll-up metal door, which is usually about the same size as a one-car garage door (smaller units may be accessed by a hinged metal door). A controlled access facility may employ security guards, security cameras, individual unit door alarms and some means of electronic gate access such as a keypad or proximity card. A few facilities even use biometric thumbprint or hand scanners to ensure that access is granted only to those that rent. Self-storage facility operators frequently provide 24-hour access, climate controlled storage, outdoor storage for RVs and boats, and lights or power outlets inside the storage unit as amenities to set themselves apart from competitors. Some storage facilities have open roofs i.e. a wire mesh roof which are not that secure, compared to ones that have full covered tin roofs that provide added security and privacy.
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