Originally Posted by The_Jazz

Since no one else seems to have pointed it out and I have some, ahem, personal experience with this, it is illegal for anyone other than the owner of the milk crate to transfer ownership. If it is a true milk crate, that means that the dairy owns it, not McDonalds, not the grocery store, not the convenience store. So if an employee of one of those places is "selling" you some, it's illegal.

And dairies take the theft of them seriously. Or at least they did in the early 90's in East Tennessee.

But they are very versatile and quite useful. Until I married an archivist, I used 2 as filing cabinets. Just get them legally.