The products

The starter bottle

On this page11

Why it exists And it is sold at or near cost Which makes the unit price matter more than usual One or two models, not twenty And one neck across all of them The label is the shop's Print the tare on it And print the care instructions Clear or natural so the level shows Sell replacement closures from day one References

A refill shop is in the container business whether it planned to be or not.

Why it exists

A first-time customer arrives with nothing. Either they leave with a container or they leave without buying, which makes the starter bottle the conversion step of the whole model.

And it is sold at or near cost

Because the margin is in the refills. A shop that prices the bottle to make money on it is taxing the one transaction it most wants to happen.

Which makes the unit price matter more than usual

This is a container bought in quantity, branded, and resold cheaply. Case pricing and a stable part number are worth more here than the perfect shape.

One or two models, not twenty

Because every model is a tare to record, a cap to stock and a pump to keep spares of. A narrow range is an operational decision before it is an aesthetic one.

And one neck across all of them

194 containers here are 24-410 and 91 are 38-400. A shop standardised on one neck stocks one set of closures for every bottle it sells.

The label is the shop's

It is the thing that comes back to the counter every few weeks carrying the name. A straight-walled bottle with a generous panel is worth more than a shapely one here: 71 PET packers and 37 HDPE packers.

Print the tare on it

Which turns every future visit into a lookup instead of a weighing. It is the single cheapest operational improvement available to a refill counter and almost nobody does it.

And print the care instructions

Hand wash, warm not hot, air dry. The refill count the whole proposition rests on depends on the customer not putting it through a dishwasher.

Clear or natural so the level shows

111 clear and 54 natural containers. A customer who can see the bottle running low comes back before it is empty, which is the behaviour the business model needs.

Sell replacement closures from day one

The pump fails before the bottle does. A shop with spare pumps on the shelf keeps bottles in service; one without them watches customers buy a whole new unit or stop coming.

References

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.

NIST Handbook 130, 2023, Uniform Weights and Measures Law. Section 1.2: "The term 'weight' as used in connection with any commodity or service means net weight. When a commodity is sold by drained weight, the term means net drained weight." Section 1.8 defines net mass or net weight as "the weight of a commodity excluding any materials, substances, or items not considered to be part of the commodity. Materials, substances, or items not considered to be part of the commodity include, but are not limited to, containers, conveyances, bags, wrappers, packaging materials, labels, individual piece coverings, decorative accompaniments, and coupons, except that, depending on the type of service rendered, packaging materials may be considered to be part of the service." nist.gov

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.