Many financial experts claim Iowa’s banks will be safe from the fallout on Wall Street. However, some Iowans apparently feel more comfortable locking up their cash in their own home.
If business at the Strauss Lock Company in Urbandale is any indication, Iowans are growing concerned with how the financial crisis might trickle down to their bank.
Strauss service technician Jeff Reed says sales of residential security safes have more than doubled in recent weeks.
"The sizes that we’ve been selling a lot of (are made) mainly for documents…but whether they’re taking their money out of their banks and stuffing it into the safe is kind of up to them. We don’t dive into that type of questioning," Reed said.
One specific model of a residential size safe at Strauss sold out within two weeks – the shipment normally lasts three months. Reed likens the recent boom in business to the weeks leading up to the turn of the century. "We saw a lot of safes being sold within the month prior to Y2K," Reed said. "Then after everything didn’t happen that people thought might happen, then it just kind of leveled off again. Now, this deal with the savings and loans and the bailouts, we’ve seen a really good spike in our sales."
Prices on the safes sold at Strauss Lock Company start at roughly $450.
AUDIO: Radio Iowa’s Pat Curtis report on safe sales. :44 MP3