With almost four million viewers tuning it, you’d think the $22 billion storage industry would be licking its chops over all the free publicity from the wildly popular and locally produced A&E show “Storage Wars,” which begins airing new episodes Nov. 15. Think again. Industry reaction to the show has been decidedly mixed — and bordering on sour. “It’s not doing us any favors,” said Clemente Teng, head of investor relations for the largest self storage company in the world, $1.7 billion Glendale-based Public Storage. “We don’t need that kind of publicity.” The premise of the show, to hear the creators describe it, is that “in today’s economy, everything is up for grabs,” including “jam-packed storage units that have been repossessed because their owners couldn’t foot the bill.” Show producers were unavailable for comment, but stated in a press release that “Storage Wars” is now A&E’s No. 1 show among adults 25 to 54. In its first season, it averaged 2.8 million viewers per episode, and its season finale attracted 3.8 million. For Burbank-based Original Productions, which produces other shows like “Ice Show Truckers,” and “Ax Men,” all intended for a tough-guy audience, “Storage Wars” has been a huge hit. But storage operators are giving the show the cold shoulder. In fact, Public Storage forbids Original from shooting at any of its 2,000 facilities nationwide. Why? “It dramatizes misfortune,” Teng said. “The show glorifies the treasure hunters, but what about the person who can’t make the rent and loses his grandmother’s belongings?” These operators say the show depicts the worst element of their business: the need to evict tenants for nonpayment and put their goods up for auction. “It’s certainly not the most glamorous side of our business,” said Michael Scanlon, president of the Self Storage Association, which represents the country’s 46,500 storage facilities. “What if you were an airline executive and they made a show called ‘Lost Luggage.’ I doubt you would like it.” What’s more, many say the reality show is not very real. For example, in reality, lockers go for as little as $10 at auction, and typically, no more than $100. The show depicts treasure hunters Jarrod Schulz, Dave Hester and Darrell Sheets bidding upwards of $1,000 per locker and scoring valuable items like rare books, tools, art or comic book sets. In reality, it’s one in 300 lockers that has anything remotely valuable in it, said Tracy Stansfield, regional property manager and part owner of Golden State Storage in Camarillo, with 10 facilities in the area. “I’ve cut 500 lockers and there’s hardly ever anything of value,” she said. “It’s clothes or household goods and maybe some old TVs and computers.” The show has done one good thing, however. It is attracting more people to auctions. Chris Risser, assistant manager of the Northridge facility of So-Cal Storage said a typical auction now brings out 40 to 50 people. “We used to have no more than 15 to 20,” he said. Greg Hauge, president of Storage Etc., which has 18 facilities in the area, said attendance at auctions spiked by more than 100 percent when the show first aired last season. It has since settled back, but auctions still bring out more people than they used to. “The typical number was five to 10; now it’s 15 to 20,” he said. Jim Greenhunt, manager at E-Z Storage in Van Nuys said he has seen attendance triple from 10 to more than 30. “We definitely have more people checking it out.” Stansfield said attendance has not only increased, the price bid for a locker has also climbed. “We used to get $5 to $50,” she said. “Now because of the show, the lockers can go for five times that.” Storage owners keep the auction proceeds to pay the rent that’s overdue. But anything extra must be returned to the owner of the goods in storage. Since much of the time those tenants are long gone and have no forwarding address, the proceeds go to the state, Scanlon said. “People think the storage company keeps the extra money,” Scanlon said. “We’re just trying to break even and in most cases, we don’t.” Most tenants have to be at least two months behind on their rent before a locker can be auctioned. That means that on the average $100-a-month locker, the delinquency is at least $200. Add to that an auction fee, advertising and the countless letters owners are obligated to send tenants before their stuff can be auctioned, and most owners said they wind up losing money. “The average locker nets $100, maybe even less,” Risser said. “We’re not making money on that.” “It’s a losing proposition for us,” added Armando Alvarado, manager of Canoga Self Storage. Not that the storage companies need the money to stay profitable. Storage is one of the only commercial real estate businesses that hasn’t felt the wrath of the recession. Occupancy rates average 80 to 85 percent, according to Scanlon, and have remained fairly steady through the recession, dipping in the last two years but not very much. And contrary to popular opinion, delinquency rates are low — no more than 2 to 3 percent, he said. Public Storage enjoys an operating profit margin of 45 percent and last year earned $581 million on $1.7 billion in revenue. One in ten people in the United States makes use of a storage locker, and Public Storage is the country’s biggest and best known. As Teng said, the publicity is hardly needed.
Cold Shoulder for A&E Show
