I was aware that some of the larger volume stores do get paid for cardboard thus I said to look for "A local store with a recycling bin for cardboard". By that I mean an outside bin typically with larger plastic lids on the top that you can drive up to. The larger stores will typically instead have a external cardboard compactor the size of small straight truck or a internal bailer to make bails that fit on a pallet. Both of these areas are strictly off limits for the public due to safety.
The key to small stores is dermining on what date they have their recycle picked up; however, as I said before, be sure to ask first. The best bet for Walmart, assuming you have a 24 store, is to make a shopping trip during their overnight stocking session. Also keep in mind some boxes, which are typically branded with the stores name or a vendors name, are off limits as they are fold down boxes that are reused by the store or a vendor that visits the store and stocks their given area within the store.
A reach tool can come in handy for getting boxes from a bin - never climb on or in one!
The last company I worked for was paid for both bailed plastic bags and for cardboard. The plastic bags were bailed within a internal bailer that required wire straps. We used Gaylord style boxes which generally held up to 2,400 pounds of product inside a plastic bag. These 6 layer boxes were too big for a compactor thus they were first manually folded flat and then metal banded onto a wood pallet 17 at a time. The real trick was getting them into the straight truck sized dumpster with no ramp for the forklift. There was only 3-4" of clearance on either side of the pallet and the dumpster walls. One had to stack them two high and set one stack inside just past the door. Then shove another stack aginst the first and so on until the dumpster was full. The trick was not to tip them over during the process or to snap the metal bands as the two stacks together were several feet over the sides of the dumper.
