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After last week's record losses, the Dow today bounced back with the biggest one-day point gain since the Great Depression.
While stocks might be up today, some consumers are deciding their money is better off at home. Around the country, and here in Salt Lake, home safe sales are booming.
At Bob's Lock, Safe and Key in West Valley, general manager John Pester told us he's seen nearly a 40 percent sales increase in big gun safes and smaller fire safes. He says he's noticed the sales spike particularly in the last month or so.
"We have had to replace a lot of inventory because of it. We've gotten a big shipment. We got about 15, 20 safes in from the factory just recently, so we have a lot of safes in stock to keep up with the demand," Pester said.
He says they usually only carry a handful of safes in their store. They've bumped that number up to about 20 total, which is more than they've ever stocked before.
It doesn't take a genius to see why sales are up. Pester thinks people are losing faith in the system and, instead, keeping their money where they can see it.
"I had one customer tell me that they needed a safe big enough to put $100,000 into. And I'm like, ‘OK, we have, we probably have a safe big enough for that.' And I was a little surprised that they would tell me that, but that was just within the last month," Pester said.
Pester says large gun safes generally sell for about $800 up to $3,500. The smaller ones range in price from $300 on up.
Federal data shows that in the last few months domestic bank deposits have dropped $40 billion.
E-mail: ngonzales@ksl.com
