Sales of Home Safes Surge, Driven by the Recession and Recent Disasters, page 1

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THE engineer in Danbury, Conn., is feeling more secure now that he has an 875-pound safe bolted to the floor of his den. The 52-year-old, who is a skeet shooter, wanted the 19.2-cubic-foot safe to lock up his seven shotguns, some of which are family heirlooms. But he also stores his wife’s jewelry in there, as well as a stash of emergency cash and a backup hard drive for his computer.

“We’re hearing a lot of people say they are closing their safety deposit boxes and bringing their valuables and important papers closer to home, where they can get their hands on them quickly,” said James Skousen, a spokesman for Liberty Safe, adding that his company had seen a surge in people buying safes to store gold and silver bullion bought as a hedge against the dollar.
In fact, sales of residential safes at Liberty, he said, have increased 40 percent since 2009, and spiked 25 percent in the first three months of this year. Other manufacturers and retailers of residential safes report similar trends: At Brown Safe Manufacturing, for instance, sales have risen 30 percent annually over the last three years, and sales of “luxury,” or very high-end safes, which make up 20 percent of the company’s business, have gone up 30 percent in the last year as well.

NYTimes Full Story

Very interesting article that goes into lots of detail as to the use of these safes and why some feel they are needed. Me personally don't find the 'visible' safe idea a good one, the art is in concealment, which is the basis of one of my companies.
Still in all this is a trend we all are witnessing and to me it speaks volumes. We here on ATS are not the only ones that feel something is about to happen and happen big. Whether it is natural disaster, civil unrest, financial meltdown, war, alien invasion or Nibiru - people are gearing up all across the country!