As he unpacked his bags during a spring break trip, Keith Yoder started to wonder how students who live far away from UCLA store all of their belongings over the summer.
The first-year business economics student said he wanted to create a service that could provide a useful fix for international and out-of-state students who may not have access to cheap and convenient summer storage.
This month, Yoder launched a new storage company called Bruin Bins with the help of his fraternity brothers from Sigma Eta Pi. The goal of the company is to make summer storage easier for the UCLA community. For now, the company only caters to UCLA students, he said.
During finals week, Yoder said, he plans to drive around picking up students’ belongings and then drive them to a storage facility he rented in Santa Monica. The week before pick-up, Yoder said, he plans to deliver storage boxes for students to fill.
Prices for Bruin Bins summer storage range from $30 for a microwave to $80 for a bed. Yoder declined to disclose how much he spent on the storage facility and boxes.
More than 100 students have signed up for the service so far, said Andrew Howard, a third-year political science student and the chief technology officer of Bruin Bins. The number of student participants has grown steadily, and there is room for about 100 more students to sign up before the storage facility reaches its capacity, Yoder said.
The storage facility has 24-hour surveillance and is climate controlled. Students’ belongings will be stored in two storage units Bruin Bins rented in the facility, Yoder said.
Yoder said he ran into some problems along the way as part of starting a new business. For example, while trying to develop a logo for the company, the first designer he worked with did not complete the job, so he had to find a new person to work with.
“It has been an awesome journey so far, so I might expand to close-by UCs and other Los Angeles schools,” Yoder said. “I just need to get a solid business model down.”
Right now, Yoder said, Bruin Bins is trying to focus on catering to international students by reaching out to international student groups because he thinks they may benefit the most from the service.
Hany Chang, a first-year undeclared social sciences student from South Korea, said she signed up for a different summer storage company she heard of through UCLA.
After spending $160 on storage, Chang said, she thinks Bruin Bins may be a cheaper and more convenient option, since students pick up and deliver supplies for customers.
Chang said she has had problems bringing her belongings back home because of the extra weight of textbooks and other equipment, such as her printer.
J. J. Lee, a first-year business economics student from South Korea, said he thinks summer storage options often seem limited.
“I have clothes here that I don’t need in Korea,” Lee said. “If I don’t store it, I just have to throw it away. It might be harder to store and better to just discard.”
After searching for different storage options, Lee said he still has not found a company to store his belongings with, but will be looking into what Bruin Bins has to offer.
Yoder said he plans to arrange drop-off times both during zero week in fall and every two weeks over the summer in case students need to access their belongings.
Since it’s the company’s first year, Yoder said he is still working out some small details for the business.
“It is going to be a lot of work for the next couple of weeks,” Yoder said. “But like everything, it is all trial and error.”