Above: The Container Store's very first store location at the corner of Preston Road and Forest Lane in Dallas.
Let's all take a trip back to Dallas, Texas on July 1st, 1978…
A new prime-time soap opera, also named Dallas, had premiered a few months before and was the hot discussion amongst TV fans. The hot topic around town was the recent opening of Reunion Tower, a structure that would become one of the city's most iconic landmarks. The other hot thing was the temperature; it averaged 98 degrees that day, but would it rise to 104 degrees at the Cotton Bowl, where the Texxas World Music Festival was being headlined by artists such as Aerosmith, Heart, and Journey.
And speaking of a "journey"--our very own journey began that very same day in a small shopping center in north Dallas. It was on July 1 that Garrett Boone, Kip Tindell, and investor John Mullen opened the doors of The Container Store's very first store location. Garrett had a master's degree in history and Kip had been an English major, so neither had thought they'd end up with careers in retail, but they became excited by the idea of a store devoted entirely to storage and organization. It was, as far as they knew, a concept that had never before been attempted. Most people thought their odd collection of industrial shelving, plastic bins, Swedish-made wire drawers, and other assorted items would never find a customer base, but over 45 years and 100 store locations later it's safe to say that this crazy concept exceeded everyone's expectations!
The Container Store co-founders Garrett Boone (left) and Kip Tindell in the original North Dallas store location.
In honor of our birthday, here are a few fun historical factoids about The Container Store:
- Up until late May of 1978, we hadn't even picked a name! One day, Garrett, Kip, and John exhaustively pored over a list of potential store names to determine what it should be. "Finally," Kip recalls in his book Uncontainable, "on page three or four...was a suggestion John had received from Bob Wilson (the father of actors Owen and Luke), then CEO of Dallas public television station KERA, whose background was in advertising and public relations: The Container Store. We all looked at one another and said, 'That's it! That's the name!'"
- Some of the products we sold on day one are still sold in our stores today! They include Elfa Drawers, Metro Shelving, and milk crates, and these products were not typically available in retail stores up until that time.
- The Container Store sells two products that have been enshrined in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection for the beauty and simplicity of their designs: AMAC storage boxes and Karim Rashad's Garbino trash can.
- The Container Store purchased one of its most valued vendors, Elfa International, in 1999, and we and our "Swedish cousins" have been one big happy family ever since!
- Our first store location was only 1,600 square feet in size, while the size of our store locations today average between 12,000 and 20,000 square feet.
- As part of our efforts to expand our reach in the custom spaces market, we purchased Chicago-based Closet Works in December 2021 and launched our premium, wood-based line Preston shortly thereafter.
- In 2023, we opened our 100th store location in Princeton, NJ.
Some of the first products we ever sold. (Note the Elfa drawers in the bottom-left corner.)
Many of our earliest storage products were displayed on Metro shelves, which we still sell today.
Today, The Container Store remains the nation's only home storage retailer with a solution-oriented approach, offering our customers a range of custom spaces, organization solutions, and in-home services. Though fashions and décor styles have frequently changed over the years, one thing has not: our mission to transform lives through the power of organization!
It's been a long and eventful trip, and we're truly thankful for all of the employees, vendors, and customers who have made our success possible!
