Getting started

Two sides of one counter

On this page11

The shop side The customer side And the shop sells that container too Which is the half this shelf serves The archetype describes the other half Twelve jugs The home refiller is the third buyer Which is the distinction that runs through this property And the pantry is the fourth Read the containers page for what is genuinely here References

The archetype describes the drum. We sell what leaves with the customer.

The shop side

A refill shop buys a drum, a pail or a five gallon cube of detergent, soap or dish liquid, puts it on a stand with a tap or a pump, and dispenses from it. That vessel is bought once and kept.

The customer side

Somebody arrives with a bottle, a jar or a jug, has it filled, and takes it away. That container is bought once and filled many times, which is the whole proposition.

And the shop sells that container too

Because a first-time customer arrives with nothing. A refill shop is in the container business whether it meant to be or not, and the starter bottle is the thing that converts a curious visitor into a returning one.

Which is the half this shelf serves

485 containers with a median of 237 mL. 443 of them are bottles. That is a shelf of take-home containers rather than a shelf of bulk vessels.

The archetype describes the other half

home-pour: 950 to 4,000 mL, jug format, with a spout or a plain closure. Only 82 containers here are over a quart and 23 over a gallon, so the window and the shelf are describing different objects.

Twelve jugs

For an archetype whose stated format is the jug. Said plainly at the start: if you are buying the vessel the shop dispenses from, this is a thin shelf and you should ask.

The home refiller is the third buyer

Somebody decanting a warehouse-size bottle of dish soap into something that fits under the sink, with no shop involved. Same containers, no weights and measures question at all, because nothing is being sold.

Which is the distinction that runs through this property

The law in the next section applies to a SALE. A household moving its own detergent between its own bottles is doing none of this.

And the pantry is the fourth

Dry decanting, flour and rice and pasta into jars. Fifteen jars on this shelf, which is the honest count for a craft that is almost entirely jars.

Read the containers page for what is genuinely here

A good take-home bottle shelf, a thin jar shelf, almost no glass and twelve jugs. The numbers are on that page rather than hidden behind the total.

References

The archetype behind this shelf is home-pour: 950 to 4,000 mL, narrow mouth, a plain closure or a spout, HDPE, cold fill, thin, aqueous, poured, with "bulk liquid, jug format with a spout or a plain closure" as its stated reason. It describes the shop's bulk vessel rather than the container a customer carries home, which is why the shelf sits an order of magnitude below the window.

The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 19 October 2026. The refill and zero waste shelf is 917 rows: 485 containers and 432 closures. 100 mL to 7,571 mL with a median of 237; 166 containers over a pint, 82 over a quart, 35 over two quarts and 23 over a gallon. 324 PET, 152 HDPE, 7 PP and 2 glass. 443 bottles, 15 jars, 15 tubs and pails and 12 jugs. 134 white, 111 clear, 76 amber, 54 natural. Closures: 268 continuous thread, 39 lotion pumps, 37 disc top, 15 flip top, 13 dome lids, 11 treatment pumps, 9 phenolic, 7 buttress, 7 round tubs, 5 foamer pumps, 5 liners and sealing discs. Necks: 194 at 24-410, 91 at 38-400, 51 at 28-410, 44 at 45-400.

Written from NIST Handbook 130, 2023 edition, and from the catalog as it stood on 19 October 2026. Handbook 130 is a compilation of model laws rather than federal law, and states adopt it in different forms, from different years, or not at all; the binding text is your state's. Nothing here concerns whether a scale is legal for trade, which is Handbook 44 and a state device approval, or the retail food rules for refilling a customer's food container, which belong to whoever licenses the shop.