Lost in (Storage) Space

"For critics of America's shopaholic culture, there's no starker symbol of materialism run amok than the ubiquitous self-storage locker. Concrete and steel bunkers, crammed to the hilt with TVs, couches and other sundry accumulations, have sprung up on just about every spare patch of dirt in recent years.

It may be hard for Canadians to grasp just how massive the self-storage industry has become in the U.S. In the span of a decade, the amount of storage space south of the border has more than doubled to 2.2 billion sq. feet — an area larger than the total land mass of Manhattan and San Francisco combined. Nearly 55,000 storage facilities line interstates, clutter industrial parks, and have taken root in suburbs. By some estimates, one in 10 U.S. households — or more than a million homeowners — now rent a locker.

They also seem to be essential for people going through change. The increase in the number of storage sites in recent years has been linked to things like rising divorce rates, the aging population, the propensity of Americans to pick up and move for work, and the large number of U.S. troops serving overseas. By one count, military personnel account for seven per cent of all locker rentals. Which is why investors have been so bullish on the sector lately — if there's anything America is experiencing right now, it's upheaval."