My mother has too much junk in her apartment. I tried to find a mini storage for her, only to find that self-storage as we know it does not really exist in Taipei. There are more fly-by-night operations where people will find space to store your stuff, but you don’t get the convenience of storing and picking up your stuff whenever you want.
Why won’t some entrepreneur just build a bunch of units in a row, put a chainlink fence around it and a keypad lock to regulate entry? Given the way the Taiwanese love to shop and how small their apartments are, surely there is a market for this sort of thing.
I suppose the space required and the cost thereof excedes the profit-making potential of leasing such units. There is also insurance, personell and other expenses to consider. Bar having such a business way out in the sticks it’s quite simply not viable.
Interesting…
Maybe I’ll get some of my mom’s excess stuff out of her apartment after all. She is like the queen of the packrats.
Alleycat,
I’m not convinced. There’s no real personnel to speak of because people do their own storing. The keypad takes care of the security. Or, at least it does in the U.S. Perhaps incidents of theft is higher in Taiwan? I’m sure insurance risks can be taken care of easily with an “at your own risk” form. They have certainly proliferated crazily in the U.S. – I think I read in a Slate article that there is 4 square feet of ministorage space for everybody in the U.S.
I bet this is a paradigm that can be imported successfully…if somebody has the capital to get it started, the sense to locate and price the service correctly, and the savvy to convince people that it really is OK to leave their junk with you.
Yes. Some people would say “hey, this storage place looks nicer than my appartment” and start living there.
Seriously, self-storage is a relatively new concept in many parts of the world (inluding Europe). Seeing the amount of… er, let’s call it “not really necessary stuff” the Taiwanese I know buy every month, maybe a self-storage place would really work in Taiwan.
[quote=“Battlepanda”]Alleycat,
I’m not convinced. There’s no real personnel to speak of because people do their own storing. The keypad takes care of the security. Or, at least it does in the U.S. Perhaps incidents of theft is higher in Taiwan? [/quote]
Me thinks you would need security guards round the clock, else nobody will want to use your facilities for fear of having their stuff stolen.
Judging by all the cages (grills) in front of windows, even it’s the 25th floor, indicates how paranoid some people are about security.
It’s just too fuzzy to legally have storage in Taiwan. Plus the expense of land and the security required because everything not nailed down or protected by dogs and people gets stolen and burglared. Almost everyone that I hang with has been burglared and considering the stellar job of the police force here, don’t ever expect to get your stuff back.
I offer storage at my place in Sanxia. You will have to make arrangements to drop off and pick it up. Good luck findign a more professional service.
