No Slowdown in Foot Traffic to Self Storage

Post-pandemic lifestyle changes are not slowing demand for self storage, according to a new report from Placer.ai.

Its latest location intelligence suggests that self-storage chains are sustaining pandemic visit gains “even as consumers are spending more time outside the home and more businesses return to at least some form of in-person work,” according to the report.

This is a departure from the hunkering down phase when consumers spent idle time sorting through their “stuff” and then looking for a place to put it. Others needed storage in the early 2020s as they rethought where they wanted to live in this “new world.”

Foot Traffic to Their Storage Areas

The report is based on visitation metrics for the self-storage category and industry leaders – Public Storage and Extra Space Storage.

Placer.ai figures that economic headwinds are playing a role as consumers might be downsizing their living spaces; meanwhile, younger Americans are moving back in with their parents and need a place for their things.

Self storage operators continue to count on “serial storers,” or those who “see enough value” in their items to justify continuing to store them, according to Placer.ai. Making frequent trips to their storage areas is one reliable metric, Placer.ai said.

Visitation metrics from 2022 indicate that many consumers with a rented storage space visited their unit multiple times a year with Public Storage and Extra Space Storage seeing a large percentage of returning visitors in 2022.

Nearly 40% of both chains’ visitors visited two or more times during the year. And 15.4% of visitors to Public Storage and 17.8% of visitors to Extra Space Storage returned at least four times during 2022.