As a REIT, it is owned by real estate investors, who receive more than 90 percent of the company's profits as a return-on-investment.

[2] Its largest shareholder is Tamara Hughes Gustavson, the daughter of one of its co-founders, with approximately 10% of stock in the company.

[5] The idea for Public Storage was conceived by Southern California real estate developer B. Wayne Hughes in the early 1970s.

[6] During a trip to Texas, he observed that local real estate developers were doing well creating mini-storage facilities outside of Dallas and Houston.

[6][9] The founders initially planned to build storage warehouses as a temporary source of income until the land became more valuable and could be redeveloped for another use.

[6] The units were rented for a similar price per square foot as apartments or office space, but cost 35 to 50 percent less to build and maintain.

[7][8] Hughes disliked loans, so he financed the purchase and development of new properties primarily through real estate limited partnerships (RELPs).

[7] The company's own RELP, called Public Storage Partners Ltd, was formed in 1975[9] and closed its first deal for $3 million in investments two years later.

[7] The RELP format allowed the firm to continue building more locations in the 1970s and 1980s when most of the industry had halted growth because of higher interest rates on loans.

The firm opened self-storage locations in close proximity to each other, so the sites could share a development office, and justify local television advertising.

[16] According to Financial World, by 1989 the real estate limited partnership (RELP) market that Public Storage relied on for funding "all but vanished".

[24] The largest self-storage business in Canada is operated by a separate company that is allowed to use the Public Storage brand.

Some locations have on-site property managers residing who are paid close to minimum wage to monitor the facility, without having to pay utilities or rent.

[25][26] The contents of a storage unit are put up for auction if the rental fees are not paid for sixty days.

Although the TV show Storage Wars created increased interest in the auctions, most units do not contain anything of substantial economic value.

[34][35] Sales of these insurance policies do have a high profit, but generate less than five percent of the company's total revenue.

[2] A REIT is an organization that primarily purchases and operates real estate investments and returns at least 90 percent of its incomes to investors.

[9] In 1995, PS Orangeco was created as a subsidiary, selling boxes, packaging, truck rentals, and other moving supplies.