p. 60
Q   How did you deal with competitors?
A   We just tried to, tried to provide a better 
service, one way or another.  Finally it got to 
the point where we, in 1975, when we realized 
we had to have what is called a rental lot, what 
I call the U-Haul Center, in order to properly 
serve the customer.  We rented in a very, very 
serious private study in Stockton, California, 
and kept tabs on the whole thing, and the  
results at our centers were so much better 
than service stations that it was dramatic.
Q   The competition drove you to the center 
concept?
A   Oh, what drove us to the center concept 
was service.  We felt we had good products, 
but, but, products alone are not what the  
customer buys.  The customer buys, really 
buys a service.  They don’t buy a product.
Q   You mentioned earlier - - some of your 
competitors were using these types of centers. 
How did you go about studying the particular 
operation?  Or did you?
A   I did, certainly.  Of course one of my real 
clear (mentors) - - Mr. Greenberg - - who was 
the grandfather, the most revered man in the 
general equipment business, was my personal 
friend from the early days.  And he helped 
me even try to get into the general equipment 
rental business from the beginning.   
We talked about it.
Q   The prototype for the center was in  
Stockton, California.
A   That was in ’74, and it was the first  
prototype center.  And so a lot of work was 
done first to find the property and what we 
were going to do, and then how to do it, how 
to set it up and do what we called product 
engineering.
Q   How many pieces of property did you did 
you purchase between the decision made in 
1974 to get into this and when you basically 
considered the expansion complete?
A   In order to do this, we often had to pur-
chase more than one piece of property, 
adjacent.  And we acquired them maybe over 
a three - or four-year period - - but I think that 
there was something like 1,600 purchases, 
individual purchases of real estate.  Now we 
didn’t end up with that many centers.  We  
did end up with 1,224 centers at the time.
Q   The 1,200 - some-odd centers - - were 
most of those on Amerco owned real estate?

View this content as a flipbook by clicking here.