Social Event of the Season

As you may already know, The Container Store is opening in Raleigh this weekend. And since I hosted that giveaway a while back, they gave me a ticket to a “private” preview party, which took place last night. L-Josh and I went, and Amaris was supposed to come too, but she got…lost? Yeah, we’ll call it lost. Anyhoe, she didn’t make, which turned out to be a really good thing because y’all, that place was packed (no pun intended). They had valet parking attendants running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to figure out where to put the cars and where they’d put them so they could bring them back. And in the middle of this, people were parking their own cars, blocking valet-parked people in so that when the valet-parked people wanted to leave, they couldn’t because the valets couldn’t get their cars out because they didn’t have the keys to the cars that were blocking them in. It was a mess.

And then inside, it was just really weird. I mean, we’re talking about The Container Store. They sell empty containers. But they had done it up, man, with hors d’oeuvres all around the store (which Josh says were really good, but I could only eat about 5% of them, so you’ll have to take her word for it), an open albeit limited bar, and a dance floor with a live band in matching purple sequined jackets. And there must have been 1,000 people at this “private” party in varying formalities of dress, from Josh in her Chucks and jeans to folks in full-on cocktail attire. Like these people went home after work, styled their hair, reapplied makeup, put on dresses and gold shoes, and went out. To The Container Store.

Then there was everyone in between. I was only slightly fancier than Josh because I was wearing boots and skinny jeans to her Chucks and boot-cut jeans, but just above me on the fancy scale were the people who looked like they might go out to a club afterward in their jeans, shiny shirts and heels. Then there were the people who’d dressed up slightly fancier than usual for work – business formal, perhaps. And THEN there were my favorites – the people who looked like they’d tried REALLY hard to put together a hip, dressy outfit. There was one girl in a cream-colored mini-dress with dark purple tights. I didn’t notice her shoes after that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were gold (that’s so hot right now).

And we all had name tags. I didn’t realize we were there to make friends or network or even socialize with strangers, but people were doing just that. Most of them didn’t even seem to be looking at the containers. They were just talkin’ it up, so happy to see each other there. At The Container Store. Josh says it was like a holiday party that just happened to be hosted at and/or by The Container Store.

It was weird. We were not prepared for such an event. And the weirdest part was that we seemed to be the only people there who thought it was weird. I think we were under-informed.

The store, however, is really nice. I would definitely recommend that you check it out after it opens (tomorrow). They’ve got EVERYTHING you could possibly need for containment and organization. Seriously. Everything. Just don’t go to any parties there unless you’re prepared to rub elbows with Raleigh’s elite (or trying to look elite).