All I want is a few cheap glass bottles!

March 28, 2009 5:10 PM

I live in the Bay Area, where can I buy small (~250 ml), screwtop glass bottles? I'd prefer not buying online because shipping charges are huge and I'm not looking for a bulk order.

I live in Berkeley. I've been looking all over for simple glass bottles. Aside from mason jars the only glass bottles I can find are fancy ones at places like Crate and Barrel and cost 5 dollars a pop. Where can I get a case or two of simple, cheap, bottles? I found cal-glass in Oakland but they aren't set up for individual sales and have a 500 dollar minimum. Surely there's SOMEWHERE that sells bottles.

posted by aspo to Food & Drink (13 answers total)

I know Cost Plus has similar products, but I don't think I've ever seen screwtop bottles of that size. I checked this place, but they don't advertise screw top beer bottles online, maybe they could steer you to another source.

You could always buy bottles that already have a product in them... Hot sauce is usually in glass bottles of about that size, and very cheap! Plus, you get hot sauce.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 5:29 PM on March 28, 2009

Try the Container Stores. They seem to carry all sorts of storage solutions, including plastic and glass bottles.
posted by HeyAllie at 5:30 PM on March 28, 2009

Try Specialty Bottle.

I don't know much about them, other than this write-up from Cool Tools, but I did put 24 random 8 oz bottles with lids into my cart. At 90 cents a pop, plus its shipping calculator to a random ZIP code in SF (12.91), it gave me a grand total of $21.60.
posted by mhz at 5:42 PM on March 28, 2009 [1 favorite]

Container Store.
posted by sanko at 6:02 PM on March 28, 2009

High-falutin' water will sometimes come in a very pretty glass bottle.
posted by ambilevous at 6:10 PM on March 28, 2009

obviously read it wrong, it's $21.60 + $12.91. Still, under a buck fifty a pop.
posted by mhz at 6:18 PM on March 28, 2009

Dunno where you are in the greater Berkeley co-prosperity sphere, but there's a Penzey's Spices storefront in Menlo Park. They have 8 fl oz empty jars for $1.69, or they're online here. If you're buying a pile they might do a discount? I can vouch for their foodly quality if that matters to you.
posted by mindsound at 6:55 PM on March 28, 2009

Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco sells glass bottles in various sizes.
posted by Quietgal at 8:56 PM on March 28, 2009

Have you tried Michael's in Emeryville? At one point I was looking for small jars for wedding favors, though I opted for something else, and I found some good prospects at both Cost Plus and Michael's. I also found some good options online at wedding favor bulk supply places, but unfortunately I can't remember the name of the company right now.
posted by JenMarie at 10:40 PM on March 28, 2009

(Oops, sorry, disregard the last part of my response. I just saw you don't want to order online -- though I don't think the company I ordered from had a big shipping charge.)
posted by JenMarie at 10:42 PM on March 28, 2009

Try your local chemist/pharmacist/dispensary. In the UK at least they are happy to sell to the public the bottles they use for packaging prescriptions.
posted by Dr.Pill at 7:21 AM on March 29, 2009

juniper tree on san pablo is a store for making soap and the like. if i recall - they also have some bottles of various sizes for sale.
posted by Wolfie at 8:22 PM on March 29, 2009

You may also look at your local homebrew stores as well. They tend to have bottles of different sizes by the one or the dozen.
posted by Philbo at 11:46 AM on April 3, 2009