I’m clearing stuff out of my basement and back room and putting things into storage. As part of this project, I’m using a lot of boxes.
My usual practice in the past when I needed boxes was to visit local liquor stores and ask for them. Liquor stores get deliveries every week and they tend to accumulate a lot of boxes once they unpack the bottles and shelve them. I’ve always figured it was a win-win situation; I was getting a bunch of boxes I wanted for free and the liquor store was getting rid of a bunch of boxes it didn’t need without having to haul them away.
But there seems to be a change in the air. I go to my local liquor store and they have a stack of empty boxes by the door. But when I ask if I can have some, there seems to be a sense of reluctance. They haven’t outright said no but they seem to be thinking it over.
Has something changed in the liquor store business? Is there now a market for selling these boxes and I’m taking away their sales? Is there some sort of deposit involved that they lose?
Perhaps the liquor store uses the empty boxes for customers who buy multiple bottles? And I noticed that a local branch of a nationwide wine and liquor store had a collection of nice wooden wine boxes at the front of the store, but they were not free.
They definitely use those boxes as an option for customers with big liquor purchases, which is much easier for everyone than a lot of bags. That’s why they keep them around and may not want someone to take them all.
They used to be free around here, but they’re pretty nice boxes and are not free any longer. I have a few in the basement that I use for wine storage when the wine rack is full.
The booze supermarkets need every box they get because a typical purchase is a dozen bottles of wine or hooch.
Corner liquor stores that mostly sell onesie-twosie? Not so much IME.
For me, when storing or moving stuff I never use scrounged boxes. No two the same size, they don’t stack or organize for shit.
Get a bunch of file boxes from Office DepotMax, and a bunch of 1.5 or 3 CuFt moving boxes from a moving store and life is far better.
Thev time you save not scrounging more than pays for the comparatively trivial cost.
Another POV. …
Boxing stuff to store raises the question: would I be better off pitching / donating this stuff?
Storage is expensive and being unwilling to spring forproper boxes is maybe your subconscious telling you this stuff isn’t worth saving in the first place.
Only you can answer these questions for you. But IMO they’re worth considering.
I was thinking that a good source for moving boxes would be a copy center, since they would have plenty of the boxes that copy paper comes in. Like liquor boxes, the boxes are sturdy with tight-fitting lids. And if all of the boxes are the same size, they’ll stack more easily.
Exactly. The nearest warehouse store (Costco or BJs) is about 30 minutes from my house. If I’m going buy booze (i.e. some combination of wine and liquor) there—which I do because of the great prices—I’m buying enough to fill a box. (I buy booze there every few months.)
Interesting question on a side issue: How does the warehouse supplying big liquor stores handle the box-stacking problem in the transport trucks that deliver all these different boxes to the stores?
Answer: Here in Ontario, where all the liquor stores are government-run, the order and stacking of liquor boxes loaded onto trucks at the warehouse is determined by computer algorithms – essentially, the boxes are organized by AI for best fit, kinda like solving a 3D puzzle. This is not a trivial exercise, and it makes a huge difference in transport efficiency.
But for most of us, your advice is sound. For me it’s always been a non-issue since I have no hope of DIY moving, and movers always deliver an ample supply of boxes in different sizes but designed to stack efficiently.
I agree with this. It’s helpful to use boxes of the same size, as they stack nicely, which is helpful when you’re trying to pick up several using a hand truck, which is why I suggested copy paper boxes.
The grocery store I get booze from has 20% off 6+ bottles periodically. Prior to a couple years ago they would put out several cases with a smattering of singles. Now they just put out singles, so I have to bring my box with me. It’s looking a little rough around the edges, but it has led a valiant life, saving many.
Not so much any more – same reason as liquor stores: they use the boxes for large customer orders. And since you are NOT a customer, they are somewhat reluctant to give the boxes away.
That’s true, but I collected quite a few copier paper boxes from work over a few weeks, but just going around to departments and looking for empty or nearly empty ones.
All of their bottles come in those boxes; usually either six or 12 bottles in one. There are a lot of people who buy ones & twos, who don’t need a box so that should mean that have a lot left over. No they wouldn’t want someone taking all of them but their supply should far outstrip their need. It’s been some # of years since I needed one but there was always a huge supply & it seemed like I was doing them a favor by barely making a dent in box mountain as they wouldn’t need to break them down later & probably pay for their disposal when the cardboard dumpster filled up.
These are not fancy wooden boxes. They’re basic cardboard boxes.
They often have cardboard dividers inside them, which I don’t need. But if they do, I take the dividers with the boxes and throw them into my own trash when I get home. I’m not dumping the dividers in the store or its vicinity. (I’m bringing this up because it occurred to me that maybe other people are dumping the dividers and that’s what’s annoying the store owners.)
I could buy boxes but I need a lot of them. And I feel if I can get boxes for free, it’s bad economics to buy them. Plus reusing boxes cuts down on waste.
Whenever I go into the store, they usually have a large pile of around twenty boxes sitting by the door. I take four or five. So I don’t feel I’m depriving them of boxes they need for customers.
Those are two different and distinct things. There are piles and piles of cardboard liquor boxes with or without cardboard dividers that the store may or may not be happy to give away. (I recall seeing a sign in one store that if you take a box, take the divider inside it, too. This clearly suggests that the store is interested in minimizing disposal/recycling fees.)
But the wooden boxes previously referred to are the types of boxes that the better wines are shipped in. They’re beautiful wooden boxes with wooden rests and wooden separators for the bottles. They’re a pretty nice way to store wine in a wine cellar.