Old Item, New Use

You’ve seen them racing down freeways on trucks, crawling endlessly over railroad crossings atop flatbed cars or stacked by the dozens waiting for loading onto ships.

But businessman Jim Davis discovered those big metal cargo containers can do more than just store things as they move across country or overseas, the containers can stay in one place and store things. It’s instant self-storage that can be easily moved, if necessary, said Davis, owner of Davis International in Harbor City.

“I’ve been in the used ocean cargo container sales business for five or six years now,” Davis said. “I figured since it’s a super-strong-built unit it would be ideal for a mini-storage unit.”

The containers Davis sells for mini-storage have actually never been used for freight. Instead, his South Korean manufacturer modifies a basic cargo container by removing the doors on the end, dividing the unit into sections with adjustable steel partitions and installing roll-up doors along the side.

Davis sold about 200 of the containers last year, his first year peddling them, and hopes to triple that in 1987. The mini-storage containers are becoming bigger than his ocean cargo container sales business, thanks to a glut of used cargo containers, he said.

“It’s pretty good,” Davis said. “It keeps the wolves from the door, anyway.”