MINNEAPOLIS LOCATION

BUY NEW OR USED SHIPPING CONTAINERS IN MINNEAPOLIS, MN

If you’re looking to buy shipping containers in the Minneapolis, MN, Area, you’ll want to speak with the experts at Container Management, Inc. We offer a large inventory of new and used steel shipping containers for purchase.

GET A QUOTE
Shipping Containers Stack with Sky in the Background

Shipping Containers Available Within a 200-mile Radius of Minneapolis, MN


We offer you options; you can pick up your shipping container or have us deliver it to you.

Option 1: Pick Up Your Shipping Container at the Minneapolis, MN, Depot Station

You can opt to pick up a shipping container you’ve purchased. Pickup is at our depot site in the 55418 Minneapolis zip code.


At the time of purchase, we’ll assign a container release number. This number allows you (or your freight forwarder) to access your purchased shipping container(s) during the specified timeframe at the Minneapolis depot.

Option 2: Receive Your Shipping Container Within 200 Miles of Minneapolis, MN

Instead of picking up your shipping container, you can choose to have us deliver it to your location (within a 200-mile radius of the Minneapolis depot). This includes the following approximate delivery areas:



  • City of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and nearby suburbs
  • North, Northwest, or West of Minneapolis within 200 miles
  • Most of Western Wisconsin
  • Parts of Northern Iowa

Is the Minneapolis Depot the Optimal Depot for Your Shipping Containers?

Our delivery area is within a 200-mile radius of the depot center nearest you.

If you live in northwestern Wisconsin, you’re closest to our Minneapolis depot. But if you live in southwestern Wisconsin, you may be closer to our Chicago, IL, location.

Furthermore, some Iowans will be closest to the Minneapolis depot, while others will be nearer to our Omaha, Nebraska depot. A few, such as those in the Quad Cities or Dubuque, IA, are closest to the Chicago depot.

Best Pricing

Wherever you live, we’ll help you find the optimal shipping container and depot, so you save on freight and overall costs.


Not sure if you’re within our Minneapolis shipping service area? Just ask!

Option 3: For Shipping Container Deliveries More Than 200 Miles From a Depot Site

For deliveries beyond 200 miles, we use a flatbed truck broker. In this case, you must be able to lift your container off the flatbed truck when it arrives.

Request a Quote

Sizes of New and Used Shipping Containers You Can Buy in Minneapolis, MN


We sell all sizes of new and used steel shipping containers in the Minneapolis, northern Iowa, and northwestern Wisconsin areas:

Depending on the shipping container grade, our 40-foot containers may be used on land or sea. Learn about shipping container grades.

Shipping Containers

Midwest Farmers Silo Seeds, Grains, and More in Shipping Containers

Approximately 85% of Iowa, 51% of Minnesota, and 30% of Wisconsin is farmland. Corn and soybeans are among the most valuable crops in all three states. Hog farming is also profitable in Minnesota and Iowa. In Wisconsin, dairy products (by far) and, to a lesser extent, cattle also top the list.


Unsurprisingly, savvy farmers use shipping containers to store farm equipment and/or to silo crops.

Farm Implement Storage in Shipping Containers

For example, farm implements are often housed in new and used shipping containers. This expands and extends the size and locations of barns and reduces overhead costs.

Siloing Seed and Grain Shipping Containers

Moreover, Midwest farmers have converted shipping containers into seed, feed, and grain siloes. This extends storage capacity, especially during peak times.

Modified with wooden bulkheads, these shipping containers offer an additional advantage of reducing spillage compared to traditional grain siloes. As a result, this deters vermin—especially mice and rats.

Minneapolis Industries and Manufacturers Buy Shipping Containers for Storage


But farmers are not the only ones buying shipping containers in the upper Midwest.

Midwest Manufacturers Buy Shipping Containers

Midwest and Minnesotan companies buy steel shipping containers for varied purposes.


For example, Minnesota is home to St. Paul’s 3M, Rochester’s IBM, Wayzata’s Cargill, and many other well-known manufacturing and medical device companies. Plus, many other Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Minnesota. Among others, these household names include UnitedHealth Group, Dayton Hudson (Target), Best Buy, and Supervalu.


Midwestern manufacturers extend warehousing capabilities with storage containers for both raw materials and finished goods—particularly during peak production periods.


From commercial construction to windmill farms, Minnesotan industries also use shipping containers as mobile sites to store construction equipment.


Other companies, such as paper suppliers, store machinery.


Still others, such as financial, healthcare, or insurance companies, must retain tax records and other documents for seven to ten years. For Minnesotans and other Upper Midwest businesses, shipping containers solve the conflict of maintaining aging records and workable office space.

Red and Green Shipping Containers

Individuals Use Shipping Containers to Extend Storage Capacity


Most Americans have too much “stuff.” And Midwesterners in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa are no exceptions.

Shipping Containers Resolve the Storage Dilemma

Although some Americans sell, donate, gift, or toss excess “stuff,” most simply find new places to store their treasures.


For many, this means buying a shipping container to place on their land.


Others choose to rent space. Indeed, about one in 11 Americans pays a monthly fee of more than $91 to secure storage locations. From 1984 to 2022, the quantity of U.S. storage units grew nearly sevenfold, from 6,600 to more than 50,000. And these units are not sitting empty; the vacancy rate is just eight percent.


Moreover, many rental facilities are collections of used shipping containers.

Who Needs More Storage and Why

Nationally, GenXers (54 percent) and Baby Boomers (51 percent) are most often using self-storage. Millennials (40 percent) are also showing increased interest in storage options.


About one-third of these people using self-storage have downsized, 27 percent are moving (but not downsizing), and one-fourth report they don’t have enough space at home. In fact, nearly half of Wisconsinites have storage units.

What’s in the Storage Container?

What are Minnesotans, Iowans, and Wisconsinites saving?

Everything in Storage Containers

If they trend true to national data, they’re accumulating:



  • Furniture (their own and those of their adult children)
  • Clothing
  • Home appliances and old electronics
  • Music, hobby, and sporting gear
  • Business-related items
  • Nostalgia—trophies from the good old days, grown children’s toys, books, and homemade art projects
  • Family heirlooms
  • Seasonal storage

Seasonal Storage in Shipping Containers

Holiday decorations grace many shipping and storage containers, and 84% of Americans decorate for Christmas.


What’s the most popular holiday decoration in Minnesota? Iowa? Wisconsin?


Minnesotans prefer snowflake decorations. Iowans bedeck homes with snowmen. And Wisconsinites favor gnomes—a Scandinavian tradition.


However, when Frosty (or Gnome-y) is made of plastic, ceramic, or inflatable polyester, he must be stowed three seasons of the year. Similarly, Minnesotans must take down snowflake lights in January—or at least by spring.


Shipping containers are a popular solution for many, especially those with the land to accommodate them.

Creative Uses of Shipping Containers in and Near Minneapolis, MN

Besides silos, storage, and temporary construction sites, shipping containers are also used in novel ways in the Minneapolis Area.

  • Shipping Container Housing and Vacation Rentals

    Shipping containers have been transformed into a variety of homes and spaces, including: 

  • Shipping Container Food Stands

    Food courts are also common uses for upcycled shipping containers. For example, Cargo Food Authority is a food court of refurbished shipping containers in the Target Center, the multi-purpose Minneapolis, MN, arena established by the Target Corporation.

  • Hydroponic Farms in Shipping Containers

    Moreover, shipping container farms are surging in popularity throughout Minnesota. Purportedly, these vertical hydroponic farms:

    • Create greater access to garden-fresh greens in the North
    • Extend the growing season from a few months to all year
    • Harvest fresher, better-tasting greens and herbs 

    For example, The Twin Cities are home to Urban Greens, a hydroponic farm that grows fresh herbs year-round. Similarly, North Market boasts a shipping container farm in the parking lot of the North Market grocery store in Minneapolis. 


    Similarly, Frisk Fra Boksen produces a variety of leafy greens in its 40-foot shipping container in Shoreview, MN, northeast of Minneapolis. Rahe of Sunshine Farms in Wykoff, MN, southeast of Rochester, MN, also harvests heads of lettuce and leafy greens.

Request a Quote From Container Management, Inc.

Overall, the use of shipping containers seems limited only by the human imagination.


Do you need help buying your cargo, storage, or customized container? We have the answers, experience, and pricing you need.


Contact Us for more information.

Share by: