Good to the Last Drop

Last weekend I was washing my car windows and reached for a bottle of Windex. There was a good quarter-inch of it left in the bottle, but because the way the pump was designed I couldn't get it to spray. I had to open a new bottle. I ended up keeping the old bottle and will pour it into the new bottle once its contents go down enough that it won't spill.

This dilemma is not unique to Windex. I've had similar issues with a wide range of spray pump bottles, including Clean Shower, Fantastic and Lysol Mildew Remover. But in this age of environmental correctness, this seems to be a problem that could easily be solved by the boys in marketing. I notice that none of these containers have a perfectly flat bottom, but instead have dimpled edges. An easy way to rectify the problem of wasted liquid cleaners would be to create a little dimpled well in the middle of the bottom of the container in which a slightly longer spray tube could be placed. This would allow every last drop of cleaner to be used, forever ending the messy chore of unscrewing caps and trying to pour chemical solvents without spilling them. I also think it would help the environment because I'm sure a lot of people are not as environmentally concerned and when the bottle gets low they just toss it in the trash.

Perhaps a large supermarket retailer can step up to the plate on this one and request that their private label supplier create a container like I had mentioned. It could be played up with a "good to the last drop" message on a starburst on the label and in advertising. In an era where many people are pinching pennies actually being able to use an entire container of spray cleaner would be a godsend.