Cheap alternatives to tabloid newspaper floor racks. What can you think of?

March 29, 2006 6:49 AM

Cheap alternatives to tabloid newspaper floor racks. What can you think of?

Another question about the alternative weekly business...

Floor racks from newspaper supply companies cost more than we can deal with ($35-$50 each), especially when we want to buy 200 or so. So we're looking for other other ideas.

We need something that looks somewhat professional with a minimal amount of labour, and without taking up any more space than a conventional wire rack.

Any suggestions?

posted by stokast to grab bag (3 comments total)

By the way, the size of the paper would be 12 x 13 inches.
posted by stokast at 7:11 AM on March 29, 2006

Indoor use only? How many papers to a rack?

There's corrugated cardboard stands like these, which are blank canvasses (each one decorated by a local artist perhaps?), but not in the least bit sturdy. It all depends on what kind of abuse these things are going to take.

You may want to go down to your local metal fabricator or scene shop (set builder) with photos/ specs of existing racks and say, "How much for 200 of these?" If the price is too high, ask what features you'd have to eliminate to shave down the price. This approach may save you big, cos once a fabricator sets up a jig he/ she can really churn the things out.

Barring that, what about something like this gussied up in some way? I mean, it reads as pretty generic, but maybe you can ziptie a piece of gatorboard with a nice artsy display onto the back -- maybe even frame it out a little, paint it, or something.

I thought of some other interesting alternatives (thrift store furniture came to mind), but they all end up going over what you want to spend. Honestly, 35 bucks a unit doesn't seem like too much for a sturdy, purpose-built rack.

('Course, you could knock around Ali Baba to see what prices you can get. Never done it myself, but I find the site pretty damn intriguing.)
posted by milquetoast at 10:35 AM on March 29, 2006

These are cheap. I don't know if they will work for what you need, I just happened to see them in a catalog yesterday. ABC's products are cheap and low-quality, but that may be OK if you think you might lose some.
posted by Sorcia at 12:37 AM on April 1, 2006