A carpet store in a shipping container in Murghab, Tajikistan.
Photographer: Eugenio GrossoIn a Remote Village in Tajikistan, Shipping Containers Become Big Box Stores
Along the Pamir Highway, Murghab’s steel-clad bazaar offers everything from car parts to ice cream.
The shipping container is one of the basic units of worldwide commerce, holding goods ferried by truck, rail and cargo ship to connect the workshops of Shenzhen and Milan to the shopping centers of Dallas and Singapore. According to the CTS Total Global Container Volume Index, some 15.7 million 20-foot equivalent container units moved in July.
But in Murghab, Tajikistan, on a plateau some 3,600 meters (11,811 feet) above sea level, the metal boxes stay put.