Even as consumer interest in green home construction and green home improvement has shot through the roof over the last decade, options for homeowners, both in the products they use to make their homes more eco-friendly and for the design and build services they use to implement those changes, have remained markedly slim. Garrett Boone, a Texas businessman, thinks the answer to this lack of choice, and thereby a lack of green home adoption, is the Container Store. In 1978, Boone opened the Container Store in Texas. As the retailer’s name implies, the store specialized in selling modular containers, which homeowners can use to make homes, unique, eco-friendly storage spaces, and more. As time went on and the Container Store idea proved itself viable, manufacturers came to Boone with ideas for green home accessories manufactured exclusively for his green enterprise. Today, according to a report from The Guardian, interest in the Container Store’s wares has built Boone’s dream into a strong market contender, with many estimating the outfit could give home improvement behemoth Home Depot a run for its money.
The Market is Certainly There
It would have been easy to dismiss the Container Store as a lucky upstart a decade ago, but today, with an increasing amount of the $57.2 billion homeowners spend on design and build contractors and home improvement items each year going toward greener options, that’s a harder argument to make. Design and build contractors specializing in green home improvements and construction now support an $85 billion industry. It’s not just the residential market driving demand for green products and expertise, either; according to the most recently available statistics from Statista, nearly 20% of new commercial construction is green.
Boone’s Solution to Green Overload
Even with the market raring for improved access to green products and services, success is no guarantee, largely because consumers are spoiled for choice. The explosion in interest in going eco-friendly has led to an explosion in the number of goods on the market. It’s like going to a restaurant with a menu offering 150 different choices. You eventually make up your mind, but it takes a long time; in the realm of retail, that time costs Boone and his store money and stability. Boone’s Container Store and its partner, TreeHouse, think they have this problem licked. Instead of taking the scatter shot approach of offering consumers myriad options for each home improvement their looking to make — the approach Home Depot, Lowe’s, and others take to more traditional wares — Boone relies on carefully curated collections to give consumers the best possible options. In doing so, it’s believed that the Container Store can eliminate the issues of green overload and product saturation for homeowners and their design and build contractors. That, it’s hoped, will be enough to make the first 100% green product retailer competitive enough to fight off their strongly rooted competitors in the more traditional home improvement space.
If you had a retailer specializing in green products nearby, would you shop there? Tell us why or why not in the comments below.
