Container Shops – Shanghai Metal Corporation

3 MAPS TO MAKE SENSE OF INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING

We often see the ‘Made in China’ label, but rarely understand what that means.

We sat down and simplified International Shipping. Here are the only 3 photos you need to have a basic understanding of how it works.

Manufacturing

Manufacturers produce massive quantities of items to meet domestic and international demand. Once finished, the items are packaged and loaded into containers for shipping.

Courtesy of: Dutakharisma.com

Shipping

Massive cargo ships are loaded by machine with standard-sized containers, before leaving port for their next destination.

Courtesy of: Sciencemag.org

Consuming

Once the items have arrived, they are unloaded and distributed to businesses and eventually sold-on to consumers.

Courtesy of: Bulgariamall.bg

The Container Shops of Alluring Asian Beauties

In our previous articles, we have discussed how shipping containers can be turned into convenient mobile pop-up stores. Container shops have already been applied all over the world. At least, this peculiar example from Taiwan gives some evidence to that theory.

In Taiwan there is a unique business concept of selling paans. They are betel nuts wrapped in a betel leaf that together make a powerful drug that gives energy boosts like caffeine. It is also a very dangerous drug that causes oral cancer. It is mostly used by truck drivers to stay awake during night shifts. Selling betel nuts is only allowed outside the capital Taipei.

The vendors of betel nuts are young local girls that sell them from small glazed kiosks. In order to attract drivers along the road, the girls wear revealing clothes. The transactions take place outside the kiosk letting the drivers stay in their cars.

A Polish architectural photographer Magda Biernat discovered a set of scattered shipping container betel nut stores when she visited Taiwan with his husband. During her journey she compiled a set of images that were displayed in her exhibition, “The Betel Nut Beauties”. (via Inhabitat)

Even though we might have negative opinions about the ethics of this business, it won’t deny the fact how shipping containers success in constantly defining new business concepts. This story also shows how fully operational real estate can be built in an environmentally friendly way by using abandoned materials.

Shanghai Metal Corporation is experienced provider of shipping containers. Our large variety of containers ensures that you will find the best product for you. We also offer prefabricated container buildings for office spaces and housing. Check our websites for detailed specifications or send us questions through this form. Visit also our social media platforms.

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Inhabitat, CNN, Wikipedia

Can Container Pop-up Shops Challenge e-Commerce?

E-commerce enables new innovative retailers to a start a business with a relatively small initial capital. As it is easy for new businesses to emerge and new products to be offered with affordable prices, e-commerce can benefit the sellers, buyers and societies. Still, the advantages of traditional retailing exist and, luckily, the cost-related disadvantages might be diminished with the use of shipping containers.

The use of shipping containers in retail real estate can break most of the disadvantages related to traditional retailing. By default traditional retailing suffers from high fixed costs, long leases, expensive rates and inflexible terms to name but a few. Also, as setting up a store takes forever, the costs tend to add up. Even though shipping containers are not originally designed to be used as real estate, they still are the most optimal solution.

Shipping containers are designed to be shipped in extreme weather conditions in rough seas. Therefore they offer the best protection towards any weather, even against hurricanes. They are built of durable material and are sized according to international standards. Therefore they are also modular and stackable allowing retailers to compile a retail center according to her own taste in a very short time period. Even a shopping mall can be built in three to four months from scratch. Containers are also affordable, say, a used container may be sold by about US$1000.

E-commerce can not fight back traditional commerce in certain areas. Security issues are always on top when establishing an online store. Possible credit card frauds might scare the customers away which forces businesses to invest a lot of money to buy expensive information security services and develop a a secure payment infrastructure. Also it is very likely that an online retailer might suffer major goodwill losses as customers become disappointed when the received products do not match with the products viewed online.

Containers shops as a form of traditional commerce enable face-to-face communication with customers and thereby better possibilities to create mutual trust between sellers and buyers. It will also be possible for sellers to present more expensive alternatives and thereby collect bigger profits. Container shops are not also tied to a fixed location but can be relocated many times.

By default, container shops can not get to the same cost category with e-commerce. Nevertheless, in a long term even maintaining an online store raises its maintenance costs and online retailers will be forced to start reaching for the advantages gained only via traditional commerce. The good thing is that, one is not forced to choose only one option. One can have them both, and create a combined retail infrastructure that has all the advantages of both online and offline retailing.

The suggested hybrid solution can only be implemented with shipping containers. Shanghai Metal Corporation has a long experience in offering shipping containers for the use of housing, hotels and offices. To learn more about our container solutions and how to order, please view our website. Please also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. You can also download our new mobile application by scanning the QR code below.

#BuildingValueAcrossTheGlobe

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Wikipedia, Academia.edu, Treehugger.com, Dutchcorner, Stumuxlow, Remodelista, Archdaily, WordPress, Peggychow.com, Tourismtrends

Shipping Container City – Shanghai Immigrant’s Homes

Soaring property values in China have some Chinese migrants finding alternative solutions. The so-called ‘shipping container city’ can be found on the outskirts of Shanghai. In 2001, officials tore down a similar container village in Pudong (Shanghai’s financial district), consisting of over 100 container homes, because it was “too dangerous”. This current stack of containers in Shanghai has been housing Chinese migrant workers for over a decade.

The origin of the unusual city comes down to a single 70-year-old man (known to the renters simply as “Old Man”) who bought the empty containers from a local customs official. Originally planning to use them for storage, he paid to have the containers stacked on the side of a road. He then snaked electrical and water lines through the stack to each container before deciding they would be better suited as homes for migrants.

This isn’t the first instance of container housing. As we’ve previously reported here , container houses could be the solution to affordable housing, and not just in China. The US has seen a number of container homes spring up of late. Companies have also noticed the advantages of container housing. For instance Starbucks has already installed its container coffee shops in Seattle and London.

Shanghai Metal manufactures shipping containers. We are the leading manufacturer and supplier in China. From the acquisition of raw materials, packaging and exportation, SMC ensures only the best quality of products. By assigning professional experts at every stage of production, we ensure continuous support in our worldwide business. To find out more, please visit our website, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Or you could try our new mobile app by scanning our QR code.

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LEGO Lands On British Shores

Have you ever stepped on a LEGO piece? How about 4.8 million of them?

In 1997 a shipping container filled with 4.8 million Lego pieces fell from a cargo ship off the coast of Cornwall in southern England. The BBC reports that pieces are still floating to shore 17 years later. The Tokio Express captain described the wave that hit the ship as a “once in a 100-year phenomenon.” The ship tilted 60 degrees one way, then 40 degrees back, sending more than 60 containers into the water.

Tracey Williams has started a Facebook page to track the Lego pieces that continue to wash ashore to this day. Take a look at some of what has washed up:

It is one of 353,264 plastic daisies dropped into the sea.

Chris Koch, the president of the World Shipping Council, says there is an “array” of legislation in force regarding the construction of containers – each one costing £2,927 ($5,000, 3,671 euros) – and how they are stacked aboard container ships.

“The predominant cause of loss is very, very bad weather, when the forces of nature overcome the forces of lashing the containers to the ship. The industry does what it can, but it can’t control Mother Nature.”

Shanghai Metal manufactures shipping containers. We are the leading manufacturer and supplier in China. From the acquisition of raw materials, packaging and exportation, SMC ensures only the best quality of products. By assigning professional experts at every stage of production, we ensure continuous support with our worldwide business. To find out more, please visit our website, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Or you could try our new mobile app by scanning our QR code.

You can also read more articles by our team at SMC:

Innovative Uses of Soap

Air Quality – What Can Be Done?

Team Building Exercises – A New Spin

How Much Petrol Costs Internationally

The Antarctican Training Programme – Could You Make It?

What Is The Mirror Paradox?

Do Oil Discoveries Cause Conflict?

Should We All Switch To Cycling?

Where Did ‘Loom Bands’ Come From?

Are You Apocalypse Ready?

Could You Abseil Down Big Ben?

Building Your Dream Kitchen

How A Tiny Anchor Can Hold A Whole Ship

Did You Know There Are 14 Kinds Of Spoon?

How To Make A Statement At Business Networking Events

How Do Telephones Actually Work?

Container Shops – The New Hot Trend in Modern Retailing!

Conventional retailing includes setting up a store in a fixed location and paying the rent for the use of the real estate. Modern retailing on the other hand, is mobile, meaning that instead of waiting for the customers to come to you, you will be able to easily relocate your business closer to your customers. This simple procedure is going mainstream and it can only be done with shipping containers. Boxman Studios have listed some benefits of container stores.

Wherever there is a container pop-up store there is always crowd, there is no question about that. This phenomenon has been proven by various consumer brands including Nike that “just did it” and designed a shipping container to reach its lacrosse market, making 38 stops in 52 days across the U.S. You can read the whole story in Box Man Studios’s article.

Another reason why container pop-up stores attract consumers is that they are equipped with electricity generators that can be used to set up Wi-Fi hotspots. While surfing online they can also admire ads on containers’ vertically extended walls and perhaps scan your company’s QR code with WeChat.

What’s more, container pop-up stores are 100 % customizable. Containers come with various kinds of door solutions, letting companies customize to pop-up stores according to their brands.

Adidas also executed a successful pop-up campaign in 2012’s Boston Maraton where it attracted many people among 27,000 runners. The German sports brand also showed its creativity by bringing a shoe box shaped container store to Chicago’s Lollapalooza music festival in 2010.

Especially clothing companies are going for pop-up retailing. Besides Nike and Adidas, also Lacoste and Uniqlo have had their container shops to visit California and New York.

Generator enabled and refrigerated containers have also made it possible for restaurant businesses to step in the pop-up business. During the construction of the new World Trade Center in New York City, the fast food chain Subway offered the workers an exclusive Subway store consisting of three stacked containers moved higher and higher up the building as the building grew. Starbucks has also opened some innovative drive-thru container stores across the U.S.

Shanghai Metal Corporation is a proud provider of shipping containers that can be used as homes, hotels, offices or pop-up shops. Our website offers a detailed description of our containers and container houses. Besides visiting our site, please also remember to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Please also try our new mobile application by scanning our QR code with your tablet or mobile phone.

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Illy pop-up café in Melbourne, Archiexpo.com, Retaildesignblog.net, Designboom.com, ContainerTech.com, Starbucks newsroom, Boxman Studios, Eventmarketer.com