Shipping pallet and a package formed therefrom

A shipping container (10) is provided comprising a pallet (11) as the bottom thereof, an inverted identical pallet (11) as the top thereof, and a peripheral sleeve (13) forming load-bearing side walls mating with each pallet via a peripheral sleeve-receiving groove (17) defined by a peripheral rim (16). The unitary pallet (11) is configured so that a bottom pallet of one container will mate with the inverted to pallet of a lower container, when containers are stacked, in such a way as to prevent shifting between containers. The pallets are also self-nesting for transport or storage when unloaded. The containers will stack even if vertically adjacent mutually inverse pallets are rotated 180° in a horizontal plane with respect to each other. The pallets also have their feet (20-28) so disposed to permit four-way fork lift entry. An alternative embodiment is provided wherein said pallets (11') are nestable and stackable at 90° intervals of relative rotation.