"In Germany, the idea that warehouse workers are going to be getting opposition from an employer when it comes to the right to organize, that's virtually unheard-of," said Marcus Courtney, a technology and communications department head at Uni Global Union, a federation of trade unions based in Nyon, Switzerland.
"Mechanically, the idea of warehouse lines and their securitization have been around for a long time," says Klein.
By 1976, after others copied van Hengel's warehouse idea, the federal government gave grants to start more food banks.
Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Barclays approached the state with the idea of a warehouse line of credit that could be used to fund energy efficiency loans.
The idea of micro-warehousing is that store backrooms are not only stockrooms for salesfloor replenishment but also small warehouses from which retailers can make local direct-to-consumer deliveries, in or out of store.
Seven years ago, for instance, Sister Mary Vincent and some volunteers came up with the idea to open a warehouse where low-income people could buy household goods for less than $20.
He rose to executive vice president for merchandising and became a protégé of Fed-Mart's chairman, Sol Price, who is credited with inventing the idea of high-volume warehouse stores that sell a limited number of products.
Nowadays, police generally have a good idea when the next warehouse party or unscheduled gathering at an English Heritage site might be happening.
"The way you get your street back," he told me, "is never to give it up in the first place". Eric has his own idea for renovating the warehouse.
