None of the fabric stores here will give you the empty bolt boards, not a single solitary one of them. They claim to need them for inventory purposes. I have walked out of Keepsake Quilting with the last 10 yards off a bolt and they wouldn't let me rewind it on the board to take home.
I don't like the skinny flat storage boards at all and store most of my yardage folded flat, but 10 yards is pretty cumbersome to cut when folded instead of wrapped, so I've learned to fan-fold anything over 4 yards. Works just fine for me.