Over the past five years, a major trend in high street infrastructure has been building new marketplaces, retail hubs and outdoor food courts, and the common denominator in all of these projects is the extensive use of shipping container conversions to make this happen.
Whilst it wasn’t the first in the world by any stretch, the now-defunct Hatch in Manchester set the tone, with the beautiful shipping container food court quickly progressing from hidden gem to trendy hotspot underneath the Mancunian Way.
In fact, it became a victim of its own success; Hatch outgrew its surroundings and proposals have been made to replace it with an even bigger venue in the same Oxford Road location under the name STACK.
However, it is not just in Manchester where the shipping container concept has thrived; Ffoss Caerffili, a shipping container market in Caerphilly, Wales, has seen the town notice a notable uptick in customers in the four months since it opened.
Dozens of other towns and cities have either launched or have seen proposals for a similar shipping container retail centre, particularly in a revitalisation period after the notable difficulties for the retail centre in 2021 and 2022.
Are shipping containers the silver bullet, and how can other venues capitalise on the success seen in Manchester, Caerphilly and across the country?
The Ground Floor
One of the greatest benefits of using shipping containers is that they are generally a far more affordable way to provide retail space that is distinct, eye-catching, sturdy and versatile, so the best way developers can capitalise on this is to offer attractive rates to interesting and unusual independent vendors.
Without the pressure of expensive rents, shipping container developments can provide a unique experience in a way that is more open and public than the typical property such a vendor could ordinarily afford but is less temporary than something like a temporary covered market.
This creates a community from the ground up that is simultaneously the venue’s biggest early evangelists, selling point and appeal.
People Make The Project
Connected to the previous point of developing a ground floor approach of incubating small, creative, talented retailers and restaurant stalls, the key to a shipping container venue being successful is the people who sell there and the community that forms around them.
Shipping containers do have some aesthetic appeal and they are long-lasting, but the venue alone is not what sells a shipping container retail location but everything around it.
Having highly appealing stalls and stands, taking advantage of the dimensions to create intimate dining environments and making a uniform space unique will help to make a building that on the outside looks similar to millions of other containers delightfully unique on the inside.
The best shipping container venues are uniform in shape but unique and distinctly local in character.
Take Advantage Of Time
What made Hutch so successful was the fact that whilst it was never unprofitable, it also was located somewhere relatively obscure and gradually built an audience by word of mouth.
It launched in 2017 relatively quickly from groundbreaking to grand opening and within a year the Manchester Evening News was calling it a “hidden haven” for food and drink.
Word of mouth and organic marketing was as powerful as any grand opening campaign, and it is important to practise patience.
