Yellowknife (Sep 08/04) - The feeding frenzy begins even before the door opens.

On the first Friday of the month, dozens of people line up outside the government warehouse on Woolgar Avenue, hoping to find a deal that will negate any need to break the bank on computer printers, furniture and office equipment.

Rick Poltaruk loads up on some plastic binders, sold for next to nothing at the government warehouse cash-and-carry sale Friday afternoon. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

At the government cash-and-carry sale, everything is dirt cheap, and the hectic pace rarely lasts the full two hours it is open for business.

"It's usually fast and furious for the first half hour," says warehouse supervisor Dave Burton.

"You can furnish the office for a couple hundred bucks... The computer geeks love the pallets of computers."

For $30 one can cart away a shrink-wrapped pallet packed with about a half dozen computers and other related equipment.

There's also dozens of office dividers, chairs, tables, and file cabinets, all on the cheap. "Governments have the attitude of new stuff," says Burton, explaining the high-turnover rate that always provides plenty to sell every month.

Office equipment isn't the only thing one can find. Sometimes the stuff that gets loaded out the back door of government offices is just plain weird.

"We've sold mannequins, and gynecology tables with the stirrups," says Burton.

Paul Yu says he has been to the cash-and-carry sale a few times, and usually finds something worthwhile to take home.

"My best find was a computer," says Yu. "Unbelievable price, $20."

Rick Poltaruk, meanwhile, was wishing he had come a little earlier.

He was in search of furnishings to soundproof a recording studio he is building. He still managed to walk away with a few office dividers and plastic binders.

"I came a little late I think," says Poltaruk. "The place has been cleaned out."