There are many novel and exciting reasons to buy a used shipping container, ranging from ‘Glamping’ holiday lets to permanent homes, but the use of them as small food or shopping outlets is a particularly attractive option.
Some traders may be drawn to the quirkiness of such re-use, which can equally resonate with customers, not least those who add to passing trade when their curiosity is stimulated.
How traders in Huddersfield might fare using such containers is something that is about to be discovered, as Kirklees Council presses ahead with a revamp of Queensgate Market.
According to the Huddersfield Examiner, the project could see many traders having to relocate for as much as three years. It notes that while some may take up vacant shop sites, others are set to make use of recycled shipping containers.
All this is part of a masterplan known as the Northumberland Street Regeneration, which plans to merge Queensgate Market and Huddersfield New Market into one single market.
The article may convey the impression that the move into shipping containers marks a major inconvenience for those traders, a hardship they must put up with until the changes are in place.
However, the establishment of sites in towns and cities filled with traders operating successfully out of recycled containers might tell a very different story indeed.
For example, across the Pennines in Manchester, there is Hatch, a cluster of shipping containers located on Oxford Road beneath the Mancunian Way flyover. Marketed as being “for the curious”, this features over 30 independent traders, mostly operating out of recycled containers.
A similar site, Cargo, exists at Wapping Wharf in Bristol, offering an array of food and drink retailers selling their wares out of the former containers.
Therefore, while the planned new market in Huddersfield might well be a fine facility, some of the traders who have moved into used shipping containers may just find their new premises offer a quirky appeal that will prompt them to stay put.