The A&E cable television show, “Storage Wars” is a nationwide sensation, entering the homes of television watchers globally. This show feeds off American’s innate desires to become treasure hunters and hit the jackpot of gold, freedom, retirement and the riches of money. Tapping into our internal desires to strike it rich, this show exploits the nature of entrepreneurship.
The show centers on California based storage lockers. When unit owners are behind in rent for three months, the storage facility has the legal right to sell the contents via an auctioneer. These items are sold as a “lot,” and buyers are only permitted five-minute inspections from the outside of the unit.
The goal of storage hunters is simple: find a unit for an affordable price and make a profit. It’s every American’s dream. The show unfortunately doesn’t show the true reality of how many worthless, sentimental contents are stored in storage units. In fact, the show simply focuses more on profitable scenarios, which are in reality few and far between in the storage hunter industry. It doesn’t mean it’s impossible, because anything is possible and several storage hunters have struck it rich, but this is due to buying units in high volume, having outlets to help sell goods and being dedicated to finding the highest resale price for items.
The original California “Storage Wars” television show was such an international hit – having a cult following of more than 5.1 million viewers, which made it the most successful A&E television show to date – that producers created a second show “Storage Wars: Texas.” Additionally, “Storage Wars: New York” is also in the works and has debuted this year.
The “Storage Wars” series are also viewable in Canada, the United Kingdom Australia, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark.
The value of this program focuses on the human energy and struggle for hope. Purchasing a storage unit is making an investment in the unknown, and can be as adrenaline inducing as a trip to Vegas and the roulette wheel. The simple journey into the unknown is what drives some people, and many feel an addiction to the excitement of purchasing possibilities. The possibility of hauling everything to the local recycle center and dump can be a reality, but couple that with the thrilling adventure of finding a safe loaded with irreplaceable valuables, and humankind simply can’t resist this money making adventure.
This show is uplifting, as the producers always find a way to explain the value of items, helping keep audiences informed about the history, rarity, uniqueness or commonality of items.
The Storage Center is a self storage facility with locations across the U.S., including Baton Rouge storage, Lafayette self storage, New Orleans storage, San Antonio self storage, to name a few.