The Container Store

I love you Container store… when my life feels chaotic and crazed, I walk through you and feel calm wash over me as you show me I can and need to organize all of the things… Even visiting another state, I wander into you and find perfect items I need.

This is essentially the IKEA in the city since it’s too expensive to open one up in the city. Nice alternative if you’re looking to buy some small containers, boxes, kitchen appliance containers, etc. Some of the things are actually cheaper than target, which is pretty impressive.

This place is an organizer’s paradise! I spent entirely too much money here this afternoon but the beau is moving in and I needed closet organizers and some extra storage.
I got hangers, a shoe rack, a bookshelf, and some storage. The customer service here is AMAZING! I got a bunch of questions answered upstairs and the woman who rang me up was lovely (pro tip, if something is out of stock in store but online, you can pay for it at the register, and pick up IN STORE!). I had quite a bit to carry and called a lyft – one of their reps helped me outside to the curb and lifted by bookshelf into the trunk!
All in all a really positive experience here! I’ll be back :)

I really like this store. They have a great selection of… containers. And also lots of other stuff, like kitchen utensils (albeit no flatware), laundry hangers, and giant metal shelving frames. The staff are friendly, the things they sell are well-​priced, and it’s conveniently located.
When I had to buy something that I couldn’t easily carry back in one trip, they held onto the second part for me while I trekked home and back with part one.
I may be weird, but I find browsing this store very fulfilling. There’s a bunch of nice stuff that you might not have previously considered for your own living space and you can come away with some useful stuff. I recommend checking it out.

Closets, storage boxes, and organization. Those are the key search terms Unilocal comes up with for The Container Store.
I feel like to say more would be inefficient and go against the philosophy. Four stars. Nice store.

As a rule, I love the Container Store but I hate this location. I will go out of my way to go to the Corte Madera location. I went this evening and had a surprisingly rude experience with the sales person. Usually Container Store team members are so friendly and cheerful. Not this woman. She was unpleasant about a return, offered no assistance, and didn’t even say thank you. Their prices are high, but I have found the experience and variety of products make up for the cost. Not tonight.

There is a reason that the Container Store on 4^th street has close to 300 reviews and 4 stars. Its not typical you see a large retail store get such rave reviews, and I can officially say that I am converted to a HUGE fan.
I have passed by the Container Store may times but never felt like over paying for containers… I clearly had no idea what I was missing out on. I had to shop for a very specific carrying tote for an important client. I searched online and saw an image posted on Pinterest and it was at the Container Store for a fraction of what I thought it would cost.
I arrived at the Container Store needing to purchase 10 of these particular bags. I was greeted at the door by a very friendly face (didn’t catch her name) and then later helped by another very helpful woman. She quickly got on a computer, looked up the bag I asked about, and then directed me to the exact location on the floor. By this point, I was already impressed with how helpful, knowledgeable and pleasant the staff was. I am always running these type of errands for work (I work in the event industry) and I had become use to crappy retail service.
I was later helped by someone EXTREMELY helpful by the name of Patrick. I told him about my event and my needs. He was truly gave top notch service that I wouldn’t even expect from the most high-​end retailer. Not only did he look up other stores that carried the bag I needed (without even me asking), he actually came up with a really creative alternate solution! You could tell he truly cared.
I am so grateful and extremely impressed with the level of service he provided! He saved me a ton of time, stress and even ended up coming up with a BRILLIANT solution in a matter of minutes! I think the part I was most blown away by is that he came up with a really unique and clever idea in such a friendly manner. I am clearly still impressed hours later :)
I recently moved to a new condo in SF and am looking forward to exploring the other merchandise at the Container Store. For sure a solid 5 stars for this amazing staff and store!

I literally signed up for Unilocal just now in order to give this review.
We came in and spoke with the design team to order a new closet. After spending $ 1,000+ for the materials and delivery and setting up the installation we thought we had everything set. We even contacted them during the waiting period to make sure everything was in order. Of course they told us it was fine.
Yesterday the raw materials came in and got delivered. The installation was supposed to happen today. After waiting a whole day we contacted their customer service. It turns out that the installation was never correctly put in their computer. Now they tell us we have to wait for a new installation time, which could take weeks. All this while, a ton of raw materials are taking up space in our apartment, and of course the Container Store has already taken our money.
Further discussions with customer service just turns up various stone-​walling techniques about how the installation service is a separate provider, that the Container Store has policies that they must follow, that they cannot help us get a refund, etc. Obviously nothing as convenient or quick as when the design team initially wanted to take our money. No talk about separate providers or policies then.

Telling me that we are going to The Container Store is like telling me I just scored tickets to Disneyland. I could spend HOURS here. The prices are right and they have a storage idea for almost any thing you can think of! The staff has always been very helpful and they seem to all be very well educated about the products, where in the store to locate them, and also have storage suggestions for anything you might be struggling with!

The missing star is for the prices. Honestly, they are high, even for SF. If you’ve got the money, or can grab a sale item though, this place is just about the best store on the planet.
Other than the steep prices, there is nothing to complain about. This store is quite large and the selection is excellent. No matter what space you’re working with, or the kinds of items you need to get off the floor and out of sight, you’ll find some kind of appropriate storage. Last time we got a pair of plastic 3-​tier drawers on sale, which were much needed. The time before that, we got a slim, very modern and aesthetically pleasing bookshelf, which we are very happy with. They have a decent selection of similarly designed shelving, desks, and chairs. There is also a section for more industrial shelving units.
Additionally, I have never met a bad employee here. Seriously, the employees consist of some of the nicest, chilliest, and most accommodating folks ever to work retail.
Just bring your wallet if you ever stop in here, and make sure you have plenty of wiggle room.

The only good thing about this store are their products, hence the extra star. (If you’re OCD, you’ll be in heaven with the products, though maybe not the store. It’s not that well organized).
Service is a real problem. There aren’t nearly enough people on the floor to help, and for all but the most basic purchases, you will need help (they weren’t particularly friendly either, but I’ll take efficiency over personality any day).
I walked into the store knowing exactly what I wanted, and still spent two hours trying to find stuff or compile the parts. One of my items was an elfa drawer set, easily purchasable on the website as a kit. Once I finally found someone to help, I was told that they would have to assemble all of the individual pieces together. I was instructed to shop for 10 – 15 minutes, and the pieces would be waiting for me at the cashier.
35 minutes later, after waiting in a 20 minute line for a cashier, I reached the front — and nothing was waiting for me. The cashier wouldn’t call anyone to see if my pieces were on the way, pointing to the long line still behind me and saying the store was closing in 5 minutes. She said I could get back in line (?!).
I gave up. Two hours wasted, and out of all the things on my list, I only got one.
My suggestion? Go to the website and find things you want. Drop by the store if you want to check out the quality or browse. Then go home and buy online.
A couple of other tips:
They didn’t have any bags (out or never have? Don’t know), so bring your own.
Installation of elfa stuff: Available installation appointments may be 1 – 2 months away, and they don’t mention this until you get to the end of the planning process. I saw two separate people get frustrated by this (as I was standing in the wings hoping someone might acknowledge me).

My husband and I purchased an Elfa closet system. Olga listened to our needs/​concerns and designed the closet in minutes. She was professional and super friendly and made the experience totally painless. Fernando just installed the system. He was early. yes early, quick, and did a perfect job. We could not be happier and will return again and again because of the experience Olga and Fernando provided.

No words can describe the great customer services I received by the following people, Doug (super patience and flexible attitude), Kristen (speedy services and cleverness), Jesus (very attentive and helpful with helping me pick and wiping everything clean), Cathy (fast and so helpful too) who helped me picking stuff and returning stuff too!
Thank you!

They have cool stuff, yes, but very expensive… but I mostly gave this review because I paid $ 1000 for a shelf and I’ve been waiting since 3pm for the parts to arrive in my apt. Here I am at 6:30pm and still waiting. They explicitly made the shipping and installation into 2 separate days (?!?). All I need is an hour text before arrival, instead of me wasting half of my day (and another half tomorrow for installation).
Someone please tell them it’s 2015, and they need to act like they’re aware of that fact if they still want my bid’ness.

Why have I never been here before?! This store brought out my inner OCD in the best way. They literally have the perfect container or organizing gizmo for everything you never knew you should organize. Prices are good, too, and the quality is much better than big box stores. The clerks were super friendly and seemed happy to be there, too. I had to leave when I realized I wanted to buy so many things to organize my space that my husband might start to worry about me.
PS — nail polish and makeup drawers are masterpieces now. I can actually find things!

5 star for my connection shelf I just bought! Pricey but perfect for a small apartment! All I need is a new chair but Gooch my dog doesn’t want to replace it lol

This location has never let me down. Great service in fact, down right fun sometimes. Tonight was an excellent example. I called about a product since it was not available on-​line. I was directed to contact individual stores, which I did.
Unfortunately, the product was not in stock here, either. Jim answered the phone and gave me more information than I expected. He couldn’t confirm one way or another if it would be restocked based on what he read on their internal site. I’m calling back in a couple weeks. Hope springs eternal.

Exceptional customer service. The products here are of top quality too. If you are getting the same product here and also on amazon, ebay etc stores, prefer products from here. It might be a bit expensive but worth it.

There really are no words to express how amazing the customer service was in the Elfa Closet section of this store.
Moving into a 100+ year old house with oddly shaped teeny tiny closets was always going to be a challenge. The Container Store made it so much easier. We’d spent a month ripping apart, stripping, sanding, plastering, and painting three closets in preparation. We decided on the Elfa system for the shelves, and spent a few hours with Hannah getting them designed. She was so patient and helpful and worked through us with all our questions. These closets are so old and weird, with the strangest dimensions, with no two the same, so the designing was quite a process. Went by quick though.
A few weeks later, I was looking at the drawings we walked out with, I realized that we had measured something incorrectly, and so I headed back to Hannah. She was a trooper and spent another hour plus rearranging and getting it all right.
Delivery and installation were a breeze and now we have a huge beautiful clothes closet, a nice big winter clothes and office closet, and a small closet just for my shoes! Totally worth the price.
Everything else about the store is great. People are oddly happy working here.
Whenever I need anything, I buy it online for pickup, drive the car to the garage, skip the valet parking and park in the 20 minute pick up spot. It’s so fast and easy, trust me, don’t do it any other way.

Hell yeah I’m a fan. I would venture to guess that the creator of this amazing store suffers from the OCD. I suffer from the Seinfeld induced version of OCD that has not been clinically diagnosed by a professional, other than yours truly of course.
They have EVERYTHING you could imagine and even stuff you couldn’t possibly imagine. They have the cereal dispenser you might find at your local Embassy Suites for the free breakfast. What an awesome idea! i couldn’t drop the $ 40 on one, but I should have.
We found some really snappy juice containers that are going to workout swell for our upcoming juice cleanse (See Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead) and they were pretty cheap actually.
We found a granny cart for my Mom’s birthday. See, she is a baby boomer and as such relied too much on the cheap version found at Walgreen’s. The old saying of they don’t make em like they used to can be inserted here and now. Poor lady was speed walking back from the grocery store and the cheap granny cart busted on her! I felt so bad! So, we found a nice, well built version here and purchased it for her to use so she can rock the granny cart as stylish as can be expected.