By accessing or using The Container Store website, providing information to us through a contact center or at one of our stores, or buying our products, you agree to the terms of the most recent version of this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use.
Last updated on 2/22/2024
We pride ourselves on providing exceptional customer service. Not only are we committed to helping you organize your life, we also want to make sure you clearly understand how we use information about you to provide you with the best possible shopping experience. We value the trust you place in The Container Store and we want to ensure that you understand what information we gather about you, how we use it, and the safeguards we have in place to protect it.
This Privacy Policy applies to information collected by The Container Store through our Internet website (currently located at www.containerstore.com) and our associated mobile sites (collectively our "Site"), our contact centers, including our toll-free number, Customer Solutions email service, or online chat (collectively our "Contact Center"), and our store locations (our "Stores"). It is designed to ensure that our customers understand how and why The Container Store collects and uses the information provided to us.
We are committed to ensuring that our communications are accessible to people with disabilities. To make accessibility-related requests or report barriers, please contact us at 888-266-8246.
The following topics are addressed in this Privacy Policy:
By using our Site, our Contact Center, or our Stores, you agree to The Container Store's Privacy Policy. We reserve the right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add or remove portions of this policy at any time. If this policy changes in the future, we will let you know by posting the updated policy on our Site with the most recent modification date. Please check this page periodically for changes. If there are material changes in the way we will use or share personal information about you, we will provide notice of our revised Privacy Policy by sending you an email notification or by making the link to our Privacy Policy on our Site red. Your continued use of our Site, our Contact Center, or our Stores following the posting of the revised policy means you accept the changed policy.
Categories and Types of Personal Information We Collect
We collect the following categories and types of personal information:
- Contact information: your first and last name, mailing address, billing address, zip code, phone number and email address;
- Other identifying information: IP address, online identifier, partial driver's license number or other identification number;
- Financial information: credit card, debit card, gift card and merchandise credit numbers, and checking account information;
- Demographic information: gender, age, ethnicity, marital status;
- Professional information: job title, information about your employer;
- Geolocation data;
- Internet or other electronic activity: your browsing and click history, including information about how you navigate within our services and which elements of our services you use the most;
- Commercial information: products purchased or viewed;
- Inferences drawn from the categories described above in order to create a profile about you to reflect your preferences, characteristics, behavior and attitude;
- If you are an employee or independent contractor of ours, in addition to the information noted above, we may also collect additional personal identifiers, protected class information, financial information, internet or other electronic activity information, geolocation information, biometric information, professional information, educational information, audio or visual information, and inferences drawn from these categories of personal information; and
- If you are applying for a job with us, in addition to the information noted above, we may also collect additional personal identifiers, protected class information, internet or other electronic activity information, professional information, and educational information. If we decide to interview you, we may print your application and use it during the interview process. If you are hired, your application becomes part of your employee file. If you are not immediately hired, your printed application is kept for one year and then typically will be destroyed. We may ask you to provide additional information during the interview or hiring process.
Categories of Use
We use your personal information for the following purposes:
- Transactional Purposes. We use your contact information, financial information, and commercial information to:
- Complete your purchases, including to process your payments and deliver products you have ordered;
- To communicate with you about your order;
- To contact you from time to time;
- To provide you with information about our business;
- To develop personalized organizational projects, custom space designs; and
- To create registries or wish lists.
- Analytical Purposes. We use your other identifying information, internet activity and browsing history, commercial information, demographic information, and geolocation data to analyze preferences, trends and statistics.
- Marketing and Promotional Purposes. We use your contact information, commercial information, demographic information, internet or other electronic activity, and inferences to:
- Send you offers for discounts or promotions;
- Send information about campaigns, new products or new features;
- Send targeted direct mail and catalogs to our customers about products, services or events that we think may be of interest, based on your past purchases at The Container Store;
- Send you organizational tips, and the most up-to-date happenings at The Container Store;
- Provide you with targeted advertising and display recommended products on our Site likely to be of interest to you; and
- Run contests, promotions and sweepstakes.
- Review and content creation purposes. We use your contact information for our Ratings & Reviews feature, for our real-life tips feature and our "What We Stand For" blog (collectively referred to as "Forums").
- Maintenance and Improvement of Services and Website. We use your contact information, commercial information, and internet activity and browsing history to:
- Improve the content and navigation on our Site;
- To re-create sessions on our Site;
- To use online chat to connect with our Contact Center; and
- To make your use of our Site compatible with the social networks you use.
- Security and Fraud Prevention. We use your contact information, other identifying information, commercial information, financial information, geolocation data, internet activity and browsing history, and inferences to protect this website, our company, and others and to prevent fraud, theft and misconduct.
- Businesses. For those who interact with us in a commercial capacity, we use your personal information to engage in business transactions with the entity you represent and market to or engage in diligence with the entities you represent.
- Job Applicants. For those who interact with us as job applicants, we use your personal information to evaluate your application for employment, to conduct job interviews, and to comply with applicable law. We may also use the information you provide to contact you about your applicationâfor example, to ask you to agree to a background check or to send you an offer letter.
- Our Employees and Independent Contractors. If you are an employee or contractor of ours, we use your personal information for the following purposes:
- Administer human resources functions such as performance reviews and appraisals, sick leave, training, internal organizational charts, internal communications, and termination or retirement issues;
- Administer payroll, benefits, insurance, and other benefits-related functions;
- Managing personnel communications including authorizing, granting and administering access to or use of our systems, facilities, devices and records;
- To investigate and resolve complaints, grievances or misconduct;
- Preparing for and acting in relation to inquiries, investigations or proceedings, by governmental, administrative, judicial or regulatory authorities, including civil litigation;
- Network and system security and access-related issues, including by protecting the company by monitoring internet access and use and emails transmitted;
- Managing customer relationship information, including records of Services provided;
- Health and safety purposes;
- Defending legal claims; and
- Any other purposes relating to carrying out our business.
Sources of Personal Information
We collect information from the following sources:
- We collect information directly from you, which includes customers, our business partners, our employees and independent contractors, and job applicants. We collect contact and demographic information directly from you. We also collect payment information from you.
- We collect information from activities within the scope of your employment, if you are an employee or independent contractor.
- If you are a job applicant, we collect information about you through the application process.
- We collect information about you from third-parties including demographic and inference information.
- We collect information from you passively. We collect Internet activity passively using tools like browser cookies. This activity is further described in the Cookies section below.
Combining Information
We may combine information you give us online (including through our Forums and Contact Center) and in our Stores. We may also combine that information with publicly available information and information we receive from or cross-reference with third-parties. We use that combined information to enhance and personalize your shopping experience with us, to communicate with you directly about our products, services and events that may be of interest to you, and for other promotional and commercial purposes.
We may share your personal information with the following third-parties:
Our Service Providers. We may contract with companies or persons to provide certain services including: credit card processing, shipping, advertising, marketing services, third-party financing providers of our products, etc. In addition, if you are an employee, independent contractor, or job applicant, we may contract with companies or persons to provide services including: human resource functions, IT-related functions, legal and accounting services, recruitment activities, administering benefits, etc. We call these companies our Service Providers. We provide our Service Providers with the information needed for them to perform these services. We also ask our Service Providers to confirm that their privacy practices are consistent with ours.
Our Affiliates. We may share personal information with businesses controlling, controlled by, or under common control with The Container Store. In the event that The Container Store is merged with or acquired by another company, or in the event of a transfer of our assets, we may disclose or transfer personal information and other information about usage of our Site in connection with such a transaction. In the event of such a transfer, we will notify you of the change of control of your personal information.
Third-Party Network. If you are outside of California, we associate your browsing history on our Site to your IP address and share both with a third-party network in exchange for receiving inferences about your interests from the network. We then use such inferences to display relevant product recommendations while browsing our Site.
Law Enforcement and Courts. In certain instances, we may disclose your contact information when we have reason to believe that it is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against persons or entities who may be causing injury to you, to the Container Store or to others. You should also be aware that courts may have the authority under certain circumstances to permit personal information and other information about usage of our Site to be shared or transferred to third-parties without your permission.
Employees, Independent Contractors, or Job Applicants. We do not sell the personal information of our employees, independent contractors, or job applicants.
* TCS will not purchase consent, sell, rent, or share consent to opt-in to our mobile SMS/text messaging program.
We use cookies, which are small data files stored on your computer that allow us to customize portions of our Site to your preferences. Generally, we use cookies to remind us of who you are, tailor our product selection to you, and to ensure that only you have access to your account and any personal organization projects, wish lists or custom space designs you have created with us. The cookie, by itself, doesn't provide any personal information, such as your name or email address. You can configure your browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is set. Each browser is different, so check the "Help" menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences. However, you may not be able to use some features of our Site if you set your browser to reject cookies.
We have implemented Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting on our Site, which provides us with information about categories of users who visit our Site, such as the number of men and women, our visitors' age ranges, and our visitors' general interests. Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting does not provide us with any personal information about you, such as your name or email address. We use information from Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting to help us to better understand our customers and potential customers.
Google permits you to opt-out of some of their services by using Google Ads Settings. For example, visitors can opt out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize Google Display Network ads. Google provides additional information about Google Analytics and additional opt-out options here.
We also use cookies and other tools to collect information about how you use our Site (for example, information about what pages you look at, what terms you use in searching our Site, or what products you investigate or purchase). This information may be collected directly by us, or it may be collected by a third-party service provider. If you have an account with us, this information may be linked to your account in order to provide you with product recommendations.
You can opt out of receiving catalogs, e-mails and other marketing materials from us. Information on how to opt out is provided below.
We participate in special partnerships with other companies that we believe offer products or services that our customers would be interested in and would benefit from. We do not share customers' personal information with these partner companies. Customers may receive information about these partnerships and related promotions directly from The Container Store or from the third-party companies that assist us with marketing.
The Container Store may also enter into a "co-branding" relationship with another company, or organization. At times, we may communicate with customers on behalf of that company and customers may be directed to a partner website to purchase a specific item or learn about their services. In these cases, both The Container Store and the partner company may receive personal information that you provide on a partner website.
Additionally, like many other companies, The Container Store may use outside marketing companies to place advertisements or links on other websites. When you visit our Site, these companies may collect certain information (e.g., your IP address, click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over) about your visits to our Site and your visits to other websites over time in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of interest to you. These companies typically use a cookie or other similar tracking technology to collect this information about your online activities over time and across different web sites. These companies may also tie identifiers associated with a particular browser or device to identifiers associated with other browsers or devices used by the same user or household (e.g., a device identifier associated with a user's computer may be tied to the device identifiers of that user's tablet and phone) in order to measure and target advertisements tailored to user interests across their devices and to send personalized marketing communications. Our systems do not recognize browser "Do Not Track" signals, but several of our Service Providers who utilize these cookies on our Site enable you to opt out of targeted advertising practices. To learn more about this behavioral advertising practice or to opt-out of this type of advertising by certain participating advertising networks, you can visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ and http://www.networkadvertising.org. In addition. Choices you make are both browser and device specific.
Google permits you to opt-out of some of their services by using Google Ads Settings, and provides information and additional opt-out options for Google Analytics here. The Container Store is not responsible for the collection or use of information by such marketing companies or third-party websites.
Third-parties may receive your personal information because you have visited their websites or accessed their links. Please refer to their privacy policies to learn about how they handle your personal information. Please note that The Container Store has no control over the privacy practices of other companies of websites, and we do not assume any responsibility or liability for any third-party's data collection or disclosure practices, their failure to abide by their privacy policies, or the content of their websites.
We will not use or disclose your personal information except: (1) as described in this Privacy Policy; (2) after obtaining your permission to a specific use or disclosure; (3) if it is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against persons or entities who may be causing injury to you, to The Container Store, or to others; (4) if we are required to do so in order to comply with any valid legal process or governmental request (such as a court order, search warrant, subpoena, civil discovery request, or statutory requirement); or (5) as we otherwise believe is required by law.
The Container Store implements and maintains reasonable security procedures designed to keep information we own, license and process from being accessed by any unauthorized person or business. We use a variety of multi-level security systems to control access to our systems and the data that we house. Our enterprise security operations center maintains real-time monitoring for information system vulnerabilities and unauthorized access attempts into our internal systems. We also maintain physical security for our facilities and limit access to certain critical areas of our business.
Unfortunately, however, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to or from our Site, and you do so at your own risk. Accordingly, we disclaim liability for any theft, loss, or interception of, or any unauthorized access or damage to any data or communications. By using our Site, you acknowledge that you understand and agree to assume these risks.
Anyone with access to the email address and password you use to create an account with us can obtain access to the personal information you have provided to us. We urge you to keep your password in a safe place and not share it with anyone. Always sign out from your account and close your browser window when you have finished your visit to our Site. This ensures that others cannot access your account, which is especially important if you are sharing a computer with someone else or are using a computer in a public place.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account password, and you are responsible for any access to or use of our Site by any person or entity using your password, whether or not such access or use has been authorized by you.
You may review and make changes to the personal information that is stored in your user account on our Site by visiting the "My Account" area of our Site.
While we hope that the information included in this Privacy Policy has helped you better understand how we use and protect your information to provide you with better service, we understand that you may still choose to not receive information from The Container Store or our partners.
- Direct Mail Opt-Out. All of our catalogs and direct mailers have information printed on them (generally on the address panel) giving customers notice on how to opt out of our direct mail promotions. To be removed from future mailings from The Container Store, please call us at 1-800-733-3532. After the voice message, please follow the prompts to remove your name from our future mailings. You will be asked for your name, address and customer number as they appear on our mailings. Your request is processed as quickly as possible. Due to mailing lead times however, it is possible that you may receive a few more mailings from us. After six to eight weeks, you should no longer receive mailings from The Container Store. You may also opt out online at www.containerstore.com/preferences.
- Email Opt-Out. All of our marketing emails include a link for unsubscribing to our emails. Registered users on our Site can also log on to the "My Account" section to change their email preferences. We will apply your unsubscribe request as quickly as possible. There may be promotional email campaigns in process, and you may continue to receive emails from us for a few days. We require up to ten days to apply your unsubscribe request. After this time, you will no longer receive marketing emails from The Container Store. You may still receive emails regarding your transactions; for example, confirming that you have placed an order, that a product you have ordered has been shipped or a reminder of a pending Elfa space design. You may also opt out online at www.containerstore.com/email/frequency.htm.
Our Site is not directed to children under the age of 13 years. We will never request personally identifiable information from anyone whom we know to be under the age of 13 without verifiable parental consent. By using our Site, you represent and warrant that you are at least 13 years old. If we become aware that a customer is under the age of 13 and has registered without prior verifiable parental consent, we will remove his or her personally identifiable registration information.
In addition, you must be at least 18 years old in order to establish an online account. By creating an online account with us you represent and warrant that you are at least 18 years of age. We do not knowingly sell the personal information of minors under the age of 16.
Laws in certain U.S. states give residents of those states specific rights with respect to the personal information collected about them. See below for more information.
If you are a California resident, you have certain privacy rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA Rights"). This section describes those rights and how you can exercise those rights with The Container Store.
CCPA Rights Requests
- Right to Know and Right to Deletion. You can request what personal information we have collected, used and disclosed in the preceding 12 months. You can also request that we delete your personal information. We may not delete all of your personal information if one of the following exceptions applies:
- Transactional: to complete a transaction for which the personal information was collected, provide a good or service requested by you, or perform a contract we have with you;
- Security: to detect data security incidents;
- Error Correction: to debug or repair any errors;
- Legal: to protect against fraud or illegal activity or to comply with applicable law or a legal obligation, or exercise rights under the law, such as the right to free speech; or
- Internal Use: to use your personal information, internally, in a lawful manner that is compatible with the context in which you provided the information (i.e. to improve our services).
Please note that if we delete your personal information, many of our services will not work the same. For example, if you are a member of our loyalty program and you request to have your information deleted, you will no longer have access to existing Perks or receive new Perks.
To submit a request to know or a request to delete, please visit here. In order to verify your identity, you will need provide us with some basic information about yourself so that we can verify that the information you provide matches what we have in our system. Upon receipt of your request, we will also ask you to verify your email address. We will maintain a record of your request to know or request to delete.
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Personal Information that We Sell
We may "sell" (as sell is defined in CCPA) the following categories of personal information:
- Identifiers
- Characteristics of protected classifications under California and federal law;
- Internet/electronic activity;
- Commercial information; and
- Inferences drawn from the categories described above in order to create a profile about you to reflect your preferences, characteristics, preferences, behavior and attitudes.
We participate in digital advertising networks and engage other advertising services to deliver advertising that is tailored to your interests. Some targeted advertising, such as the participation in certain ad networks can constitute a "sale" of personal information under CCPA. We do not knowingly sell the personal information of minors under the age of 16.
Right to Opt Out of Sale
California residents have the right to opt out of the sale of your personal information to third parties, as "sale" is defined under CCPA. In order to opt out of the targeted advertising activity described above, please visit optout.aboutads.info and optout.networkadvertising.org. Choices you make are both browser and device specific.
Financial Incentives
We offer various financial incentives. The terms of the financial incentive will be presented to you at the time you sign up. We have calculated the value of the incentive by using the expense related to the offer. You may withdraw from any of the financial incentives by:
- If you are a member of our loyalty program, you may cancel your membership as identified in our loyalty program terms and conditions.
- Call our Customer Solutions department at 800-311-9628 and identify which sweepstakes or promotion you would no longer like to participate
Non-Discrimination
We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA Rights and we will not deny you goods or services, charge you a different price, or provide you with a lesser quality of goods or services if you exercise any of your CCPA Rights.
Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 603A provides consumers the right to request companies not to sell their personal information - even if the company is not currently selling such information. The Container Store does not sell your personal information with other companies. Nevada residents who wish to exercise their sale opt-out rights under this law may submit a request to this designated address: contain@containerstore.com.
The Virginia Consumer Data Privacy Act (âVCDPAâ) grants Virginia residents the following rights with respect to their personal information we collect:
- Right to Know. The right to confirm whether or not we are processing their personal information and to access such data.
- Right to a Copy. The right to a portable copy of the personal information we have collected from them.
- Right to Delete. The right to request deletion of their personal information that we have collected about them and to have such information deleted, subject to certain exceptions.
- Right to Correct. The right to ask that we correct inaccuracies in their personal information, taking into account the nature of personal data and purposes of processing such information.
- Right to Opt Out of Targeted Advertising. To the extent we engage in targeted advertising, the right to ask us to stop processing their personal information for such purposes.
While Virginia law provides the right to opt out of the sale of personal information, we do not sell personal information consistent with the definition of âsaleâ under Virginia law.
Please note that for purpose of this section of this Policy, we consider âpersonal informationâ to have the same meaning as âpersonal dataâ as defined under the VCDPA.
Exercising Your Rights and How We Will Respond
Contact us at contain@containerstore.com to exercise the right to know, obtain a portable copy of, delete, or correct your personal information. We will respond to such requests within 45 days from when we receive your request, although we may be allowed to take longer to process your request under certain circumstances. If we expect your request is going to take us longer than normal to fulfill, we will let you know.
You can direct us not to process your personal information for purposes of targeted advertising optout.aboutads.info and optout.networkadvertising.org.
We usually act on requests and provide information free of charge, but we may charge a reasonable fee to cover our administrative costs of providing the information in certain situations.
Verification of Identity â Requests to Know, Delete, Correct
We will ask you for two pieces of personal information and attempt to match those to information that we maintain about you.
If we are unable to verify your identity with the degree of certainty required, we will not be able to respond to the request. We will notify you to explain the basis of the denial.
When We Do Not Act on a Request â Appeal Process
In some cases, we may not act on your requests (e.g., if we cannot do so under other laws that apply). When this is the case, we will explain our reasons for not providing you with the information or taking the action (e.g., correcting data) you requested.
Additionally, you have the right to appeal our decision by contacting us at 866-266-8246. Please provide us with any information that you provided when submitting your initial request. We will respond to your appeal within 60 days of our receipt of the request.
Our Site includes a feature ("Careers") that allows you to submit an online job application. The online application process is hosted and supported by a third-party service provider, iCIMS. iCIMS receives and stores the information you provide. iCIMS does not disclose the personal information it receives and maintains for The Container Store to anyone else. (Click here to see the iCIMS Privacy Policy.).
If you need any other information, please submit your requests or questions to The Container Store, ATTN: Customer Solutions Department, 500 Freeport Parkway, Coppell, TX 75019 or email us at contain@containerstore.com. Please allow 30 days for a response.
