I buy maybe six bottles of water a year, maybe less. I just want the bottles to refill over and over, because they are so handy.
Each bottle comes with a Handy Cap.
Bottled water reminds me of the gum we used to buy to get the baseball cards. It was in flat squares that crumbled, and tasted like
hell. Every kid I knew bought the gum whenever he could come up with a nickel, took the baseball card, and threw away the gum.
I'd pay exactly the same price, just as often, if they poured out the water and just packaged the bottles. In fact, it would be appreciated, because they would be lighter to carry home.
That's an interesting marketing question. If you packaged empty plastic bottles, and put them next to packages of bottles full of water, with exactly the same price, which item would sell best? I'd always take the empty ones.