[Terry The Toad]

I don't have a solution, but I have had the same (frustrating) thoughts that you expressed.

It seems to me that there should be a "dry well" in the middle of the cooler. You fill *around* the well with ice, and put all your food in the middle. I have thought about trying to create something along those lines by putting a tall plastic box in the middle of my cooler - with clean bricks on the bottom to keep it from floating when the ice melts.

Haven't gotten around to trying it yet though.