The mad scramble for moving boxes

In the next 10 days, about 125,000 households will be moving from one place to another in Montreal. So it's no surprise that there's a run on cardboard boxes in the city: if you assume about 30 boxes per move, that's 3.75 million boxes.

As July 1 approaches, many traditional sources of free boxes have little to offer. Supermarkets, the first place everyone thinks of, get cleaned out early. Liquor stores start placing quotas on box beggars (maximum two per person per day, for example). Buying boxes gets expensive in a hurry. What's a broke, desperate last-minute mover to do?

One local housing activist suggests scavenging in the streets--especially in back alleys, and on recycling day. But if all else fails, there is one place in Montreal that sells second-hand boxes: Cartonnerie de Montreal, located at 6327 Clark (near Bellechasse), sells 'em for 60 to 95 cents each. Open 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Closed weekends. Go now.

--Philip Preville