A recent story from the Citizens Voice (”Citizens’ Voice, Standard-Speaker have fastest-growing newspaper readership in U.S.,” the paper advertises), a paper out of Luzerne County, Pa., claims the local resi market is growing. That’s gotta be good news, right? I mean, obviously, it’s good news for local integrators and dealers and their monitoring centers. But does it bode well for the rest of the industry? One can probably assume what’s happening in one suburban Pennsylvania county may be happening elsewhere as well. I can’t wait to get a look at the data. Where’s the research from? How big was the sample pool? What are the numbers and percentages?
From the story:
More people seem to be buying residential-security systems in Hazleton and Hazle Township, officials from both areas say.
Though neither the Code Enforcement Department and Police Department of Hazleton nor the Hazle Township zoning officer keep statistics on the number of homes with the systems, Hazleton Code Enforcement and Zoning Officer Rich Wech and Hazle Township Zoning Officer Frances Calarco said they are seeing more security-system signs outside homes in their respective jurisdictions.
Ah… well… we know from past experience that that doesn’t actually mean there’s a system inside. People have been known to use bogus yard signs and window decals as a cheaper prophylactic measure than actually investing in the system. After all, how does the potential bad guy know if you really have a system or are just saying you do? Though, neither the sticker nor the yard sign are going to call the police for you if there’s a break in or other emergency.
Actually, I ganked the ADT yard sign pic above from a blog called Live for Improvement, which says its aim is to be “a self help blog, designed to improve the quality of life through simple tips and tricks.”
“Tricks” implies subterfuge, hence the props to the bogus yard sign.
From said blog:
A yard sign and decals can be purchased on eBay for around $30-$50. These identifiers obviously don’t provide the protection of an actual system, but it can greatly affect the odds of a break in. There are even companies that specialize in making fake security signs, but I heard burglars can tell the difference.
The story mentions APX, which had a license to sell in the area for only 30 days, the story reports. The story, though not in-depth by any means (note the assertion that resi is on the rise, despite the second graph admitting there’s no real data to back the assertion up) manages to mention door-knocking and annoyingly persistent salespeople, false alarms and some of the good points of security in its 500 words. The story quotes a resident who has nothing but good things to say about APX and his APX system.
It also mentions ADT and quotes Bob Tucker. Overall, not a bad piece of publicity for resi security.
In all honesty, more yard signs probably does mean that resi is on the rise in the area, which strikes me as a good sign.
