They say history repeats itself, with trends coming and going and coming again in fashion, food, politics, pop culture, and even restaurant design.
That seems to be the case with shipping-container buildouts, a trend that popped up around 2011, fizzled out, and is now slowly making a return at both independent restaurants and larger chains.
The design’s initial debut in the limited-service industry is often credited to Starbucks, which in 2011 unveiled a 450-square-foot shipping-container design in Tukwila, Washington. The coffee giant went on to open a number of similar stores across the country, with the more compact design allowing it to expand to sites previously too small for a traditional Starbucks footprint.
However, many brands that followed suit discovered that the tools needed to economically produce these designs weren’t widely available six years ago, leading a majority to abandon the effort, says restaurant design expert Steve Starr.
The original content of this post was featured on QSR and written by Mary Avant. Read the full QSR article here.