The Container Store

Even before the Alb store opened, I would arrange extra time on my trips to get to a Container Store. There simply is no other place that has so many creative choices for organizing anything you have that needs containment. Their products are sturdy and work. I have reliable storage everywhere in my house with ease of placing and even more important, ease of seeing what is inside the storage. They make it easy and fun to become obsessed with “containing” things.

I purposefully chose the store that showed my items as in stock for pick-up. The promised pick-up date came and went, and my order (which I had to check on, as no communication came to indicate anything) showed ‘delayed’ with no further information (new date? Option to pickup some items? Apology that items were now out of stock?). I checked status of my order from desktop online menu, using chat, and was told I needed to call the store. Called the store and was told they couldn’t find one of my items. Wasn’t offered the option to pick up the remaining items. Was told they would call back in half an hour when another employee came in who might know where my items were. My order remains in delayed (limbo) status. Re-ordered the exact items, which all still indicate are in stock. We’ll see if they can execute the second order. I could abide by a delayed status if they push communicated to me or otherwise attempted to reset expectations, but no attempt was made.

I have had Elfa products for 40+ years, and have moved most of them as much as 4 times. I’ve been happy with store service, installation,support, contactless pickup, ship to home. What has annoyed me is online shopping - not the concept, the mechanics. It is not intuitive to find what I’m looking for, even if I’m only searching Elfa. With the app there seems to be endless scrolling, the setup is for the phone, not the tablet, and I can’t seem to avoid refining the search at least twice. Then I get to checkout, and suddenly there are items unavailable that I must discontinue. I have to search them out (not simple), figure out if ANY are available if I ordered a multiple, then decide if I want the rest of my order. Why can’t I find this out when I first select the item? And why can’t I get info as to when the item will be restocked without launching a separate inquiry? This might be possible with the website on the PC, but not in my Elfa closet on the tablet. Wishlist it is, I suppose.