Last Thursday I was one of the lucky Orlando area bloggers invited to a special event to tour the store prior to opening day. Luckily, my friend and co-worker who also has a blog was invited as well. The excitement working up to Thursday was ridiculous! I have been waiting over 10 years for Orlando to get one of these stores! Coming here from Austin, I thought I was excited for IKEA, but let me tell you, this event was way more special!(BTW, I was not compensated or obligated to write this post - I gladly attended their event and this is just an outlet for my excitement! And I will share more excitement about the goody-bag products for fun later.)
It was a fabulous moment finally driving up to the store, which is located right at the corner of Millenia Boulevard and Conroy intersection. A prime location in the Millenia Mall area, for which I will be visiting more often! Once inside the store, all I could feel was happiness. If you haven't ever been to The Container Store, yet you wish your house, office, and life in general was organized, this place will soon be your retreat and your sense of inner peace will be comforted as soon as you walk in. That sounds like an over-exaggeration, but spend a couple of hours (yes, you will need a couple of hours at least) and you will see what I mean.
The inside tour and overview of the company's foundation principles were impressive. An introduction to the reason why The Container Store has been on the Fortune 500 - 100 Best Companies list for so long can been seen on their blog. As we toured through the store, I had forgotten how innovative and invigorating the products they carry could be. Everything from normal storage solutions, to wrapping a gift in a special box - they have what you need - and even stuff you didn't know you needed! In my case, I will have to put myself on a strict budget every time I go or my husband will be cutting up the credit cards!
They also have this really cool service, where you can order on-line, and pick up your purchases at the store. They will even bring it out to your car for you. Awesome!
In addition to the lunch event, we were also invited to the preview party on Thursday night. This was also very impressive and gave me sooo many new ideas for how to display things for a party! They were setting up for the event when we were getting our tour, and they told us the concept was that all the food and flowers for the party were going to be displayed in or on the containers. This concept was so exquisitely executed down to the detail of the garbage bins - of course - where you tossed your plate - were their products!
This weekend was the opening weekend, which 10% of the sales were given to the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies! What a great cause! As busy as it was on Saturday, I am sure they met their sales goal easily!
Oh, and I forgot to mention the goody-box - really. Some of the cool stuff that was included was erasable food storage labels - which will be great for the kid's lunches! I also can't wait to use the pretty file folders and pencil holder at my desk. And I will have to go back and visit the travel isle and look at all the Eagle Creek brand luggage accessories, which would be great gifts for family members who travel a lot - and for me!
After the visit, my mind hasn't stopped thinking about the projects I could come up with to use their stuff. For better or worse, I'm sure I will be documenting them and sharing when completed soon!
Here's a few of my favorite photos of the event - enjoy!
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