Try to "contain yourself"

Oh how I love to hate the Container Store. Why? Well, it's very complicated really and has a lot to do with my own lack of planning, short temper and I hate waiting just to be waited-on.

Today is the last day of the "annual elfa sale". Everything is 30% off. That's a big deal because their crap is already 50% more expensive than anything you could find at Home Depot or Menards or Ace. That means the place was going to be jammed with last-minute shoppers (even though it was Super Bowl weekend). Women love this store. Somehow, it's more approachable than a hardware store. I digress. Let me tell you why I hate it.

1)The stores are not designed well
2)They have tiny shopping carts
3)You can't grab all the items by yourself; someone must "design" a solution for you

4a)They have this type of shelving in black, but not that.

4b)They have this width of shelf, but not in that color

4c)They have this width of shelf in this color, but not in that depth

1)The stores are all the same; all the same poor layout. It's like the difference from an old Wal-Mart store and a new one. The aisles are cramped and there's no room for the crappy little shopping carts they give you. That leads me to #2.

2)The shopping carts can't hold 5% of the items they sell. They make their bread and butter off of shelving; none of which will actually fit in the cart. However, they take the opportunity to hide most of the items you would like to pick out by yourself, but don't have room in the tiny little carts. That leads me to #3.

3)Many items you need to complete your shelving aren't actually on the storeroom floor and available to the customer to pick out. You must first speak to a "designer" who will kindly walk you through the 15,000 options available and determine what you "need". Then, they create a picking list for a pro to fill up an appropriately-sized cart and bring it to your car.

4)It's flexible, but not flexible at the same time. I expressed that to them at Container Store and they really didn't have much of an answer for me. Anyhow, let me tell you about my experience over the weekend.

I bought my HDTV (love it more each day) and decided I wanted all my home theater hardware (DVD player, AMP, TiVO, etc.) to be on the wall just like the LCD HDTV. I wanted a mantel above the TV. I know what I wanted to do, but could not find a pre-packaged piece of hardware to accomplish the task. I figured all was lost; until I went to the Container Store to purchase and unrelated shelving rack for my back kitchen. We showed up at about 10:30am Saturday afternoon.

After deciding to purchase the product for my kitchen, Nancy was very nice and helped explain how I could accomplish what I wanted to accomplish for my home theater and do it with the style that I wanted to portray. I wanted black wood shelfing and I wanted it to be a clean installation where the mouting hardware was "hidden". It's impossible to hide everyting completely, but that's where I was headed.

The Container Store is known for their Elfa shelving which until recently has been all ventilated shelves. Now they have wood shelving that work with the same brackets so all is right in the world. I designed the solution with Nancy's help and took the drawings home to sit on it for a bit. After going home and thinking about it, Katie and I decided to return to the store to pull the trigger.

I needed to make a few modifications to the original plan - longer this, shorter that, etc. However, in order to do that, I had to speak to a designer (some trained gal who has access to a computer terminal with my saved plans from earlier in the day). It's now about 5pm Saturday night and the wait to see a designer requires a pager and to get in line. After waiting 45 minutes with my pager (with a 2-month old daughter in tow), I found out that there were 7 more people still in front of me. Holy Crap. Painful. After all was said and done, we were out the door at 7pm. It took two hours to do "longer this, shorter that".

I got home and put it all together. After installing all the components and looking at it for a bit, I realized that 20" shelves were way too deep and I needed something shallower. Unfortunately, there is no other option than to go with 16" deep shelves. I could also use a 12" deep shelf, but those only come in 24" widths, not the 48" I desire. So, you see how this becomes an issue quickly and it's flexible, but it's not flexible.

I return the next morning at 11:00am to return the wrong parts and buy the new ones. Given that it took me two hours the last time, I figured it would not be as bad and I could simply grab what I wanted and move on. That was not the case. There was a 15-person deep line to just GET a pager. Crazy. I choose to bypass all that and just pick out the items that I needed and move on.

Well it just so happens that the shelves that I want are not accessible to the average customer; you must speak to a designer to have them "picked" from the storeroom for you (sSee issue #3). Anyhow, I came to grips with the fact that I would have to pay full price for the shelves and would come back another day. In the meantime, I would grab what I could (like a looter) and get on with my day.

As I get to the register, I had this wonderful idea - I'm going to complain. As a general rule, I go with the flow because I know these rules exist for a reason. They are usually in place to protect the average idiot shopper from themselves. As I was taking items out of my cart, I asked the cashier why I was not able to pick all the items I wanted simply by hand. I explained that I simply needed some shelves to finish off my ensemble. I had already swapped out the 20" brackets for 16" brackets and returned the 20" shelves. I also said that it took me two hours yesterday and I didn't need to speak to a designer (as I didn't need their assistance). She replied, "I can grab those items for you, what do you want?". I was floored. I told her the items, she brought them back and I was on my way. What genius.

After getting home and setting everything up, I realized that I bought the wrong brackets and had to return YET AGAIN (the fourth time in 2 days). Finally, I grabbed the proper brackets, returned the improper brackets and headed home.

Just before the Giants and Patriots kicked off, I had the shelving complete and all was right in the world. I feel victorious.