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I pay about $400/year for $1.5 million in commercial property liability insurance for a small office space. And the risk of somebody "slipping" and collecting $

by wahern 4y ago

I pay about $400/year for $1.5 million in commercial property liability insurance for a small office space. And the risk of somebody "slipping" and collecting $1.5 million is far, far more likely. Every time you drive your car or bicycle you take the risk of running over a star athlete or CEO, and facing a $10 million judgement on lost earnings. Anyhow, banks will typically require liability disclaimers from deposit box renters, so their exposure is de minimis (probably of freak incident * probability of ineffective disclaimer). I'm guessing the real reason for not wanting these deposit boxes is the same reason banks are shedding branch staff--labor is costly; and the same reason retailers spent the past few decades selling and leasing back store locations--inflate their quarterly earnings reports by dumping accumulated real estate assets.

derefr 4y ago
> labor is costly Why would one need labor to operate a safe-deposit box business? Can't you just have a very secure warehouse full of boxes, with warehouse robots that will grab those boxes and put them into a drop slot when someone taps the appropriate smart card? Before anyone says that that's impractical/too expensive: there are robotic parking garages that do this for cars, and that's a much higher OpEx.
- User23 4y ago
  > Why would one need labor to operate a safe-deposit box business? Because physical security boils down to capable men with guns, whether that's private security, the police, or godfather type arrangements.
  - kennyloginz 4y ago
    drones , remote weapons, surveillance tech, “lingering weapons”, has shown that physical security absolutely does not boil down to “ capable men with guns”.
    - Lio 4y ago
      > Because physical security boils down to capable men with guns, whether that's private security, the police, or godfather type arrangements. >> drones , remote weapons, surveillance tech, “lingering weapons”, has shown that physical security absolutely does not boil down to “ capable men with guns”. How is that disproving the parents point? Capable men with drones is not meaningfully different to capable men with guns, or pointy sticks for that matter.
- adgjlsfhk1 4y ago
  If there's no human involved, what stops someone coming in with a screwdriver and hammer?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- kube-system 4y ago
  Unmanned storage exists already, but it is seen as less secure, because often nobody is there to monitor it. https://uploads.website.storedge.com/60281063-f09b-41fb-be8f-998d4b85315a/48281-sr-2.jpg https://uploads.website.storedge.com/60281063-f09b-41fb-be8f... The allure of a bank is that it’s a bank and it is seen as secure because of the self interest in the bank itself being secure.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
zuminator 4y ago
Doubtless. Even so, the article does mention that safe deposit box insurance is available from third party providers. I don't know about the rates, but I'd imagine if anything it's probably cheaper to insure a half million dollars worth of valuables stuck in a bank vault than the same items stored in your bedroom. Although there's also the possibility of including the items in the box as part of a homeowner's insurance policy. [0] The problem being that some things people put in boxes have a sentimental value that makes them irreplaceable. You can be compensated for Grammy's brooch but it's not the same as Grammy's brooch. [0] https://www.geico.com/living/home/home-protection/safe-keeping-three-key-things-to-know-about-safe-deposit-boxes/ https://www.geico.com/living/home/home-protection/safe-keepi...
Lio 4y ago
> I'm guessing the real reason for not wanting these deposit boxes is the same reason banks are shedding branch staff--labor is costly; It's because most business schools teach business administrators to seek rent for doing nothing. Making anything, providing any service or really doing anything other than pure rent seeking is an opportunity to be beaten by those who care enough to do it better and so should be avoided. The ideal business would be one where capital is rented out for maximum return without having to think about how to get the best return. To a remote man with a spreadsheet everything has a cost and nothing has a value.
- michaelt 4y ago
  > It's because most business schools teach business administrators to seek rent for doing nothing. To be fair, renting out metal boxes you already own doesn't exactly sound labour-intensive.

by wahern 4y ago

derefr 4y ago

> labor is costly Why would one need labor to operate a safe-deposit box business? Can't you just have a very secure warehouse full of boxes, with warehouse robots that will grab those boxes and put them into a drop slot when someone taps the appropriate smart card? Before anyone says that that's impractical/too expensive: there are robotic parking garages that do this for cars, and that's a much higher OpEx.

User23 4y ago
> Why would one need labor to operate a safe-deposit box business? Because physical security boils down to capable men with guns, whether that's private security, the police, or godfather type arrangements.
- kennyloginz 4y ago
  drones , remote weapons, surveillance tech, “lingering weapons”, has shown that physical security absolutely does not boil down to “ capable men with guns”.
  - Lio 4y ago
    > Because physical security boils down to capable men with guns, whether that's private security, the police, or godfather type arrangements. >> drones , remote weapons, surveillance tech, “lingering weapons”, has shown that physical security absolutely does not boil down to “ capable men with guns”. How is that disproving the parents point? Capable men with drones is not meaningfully different to capable men with guns, or pointy sticks for that matter.
adgjlsfhk1 4y ago
If there's no human involved, what stops someone coming in with a screwdriver and hammer?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
kube-system 4y ago
Unmanned storage exists already, but it is seen as less secure, because often nobody is there to monitor it. https://uploads.website.storedge.com/60281063-f09b-41fb-be8f-998d4b85315a/48281-sr-2.jpg https://uploads.website.storedge.com/60281063-f09b-41fb-be8f... The allure of a bank is that it’s a bank and it is seen as secure because of the self interest in the bank itself being secure.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

zuminator 4y ago

Doubtless. Even so, the article does mention that safe deposit box insurance is available from third party providers. I don't know about the rates, but I'd imagine if anything it's probably cheaper to insure a half million dollars worth of valuables stuck in a bank vault than the same items stored in your bedroom. Although there's also the possibility of including the items in the box as part of a homeowner's insurance policy. [0] The problem being that some things people put in boxes have a sentimental value that makes them irreplaceable. You can be compensated for Grammy's brooch but it's not the same as Grammy's brooch. [0] https://www.geico.com/living/home/home-protection/safe-keeping-three-key-things-to-know-about-safe-deposit-boxes/ https://www.geico.com/living/home/home-protection/safe-keepi...

Lio 4y ago

> I'm guessing the real reason for not wanting these deposit boxes is the same reason banks are shedding branch staff--labor is costly; It's because most business schools teach business administrators to seek rent for doing nothing. Making anything, providing any service or really doing anything other than pure rent seeking is an opportunity to be beaten by those who care enough to do it better and so should be avoided. The ideal business would be one where capital is rented out for maximum return without having to think about how to get the best return. To a remote man with a spreadsheet everything has a cost and nothing has a value.

michaelt 4y ago
> It's because most business schools teach business administrators to seek rent for doing nothing. To be fair, renting out metal boxes you already own doesn't exactly sound labour-intensive.