OT: What up with 9V Alkaline Batteries?

[bobmct]

You know those squarish snap top batteries that we've all become used to for decades and decades and many electronic devices use? Well its time to change the batts in my smoke alarms and I went out to buy some.

I used to purchase them 10 to a card at a wholesale club like BJ's for about $10 making them about $1 a piece.

This month the cheapest I could find were cards of 4 for $11 making them $2.75 each. Thats a 275% price increase. In other stores like the chain stores I've seen brand name prices of $4.99 each to cards of

2 for $8.49.

What are others paying and if I'm not going crazy, why such a drastic increase?

Just ranting -

[Stormin Mormon]

Yes, they are seriously expensive. Why the price jump? Don't know. I found cards of them at Lowes, the eveready alkalines are, well, can't remember. But it was cheaper.

Also at Lowe's Hardware, are the 36 packs of AA Energizer, at good price.

I used to see Panasonic brand at Dollar Tree, for buck each. Not sure if they have alkalines any more, though.

[Bob F]

There's a worldwide shortage of alkaline that has sent the price sky high.

[K]

I still get them for a buck, but at the supermarket when they're on sale. All batteries seem to have taken a jump - I looked for a D cell this weekend and they were in packs of 2 for over $4. I don't know what the deal is, but they certainly haven't gotten any better.

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[Robert Neville]

You might want to consider buying Lithium 9v smoke detector batteries instead. They run about $10 a pop, but are good for up to 10 years.

[clare]

Yes, or as little as 2.

[mm]

aRE YOU sure that wasn't Panasomic?

I'm not sure myself.

[ransley]

Are you sure those 1$ one were not Carbon Zinc, I found them at Walgreens and they last 1 yr in smoke detectors, but Alkalines might last 3 years.

[dgk]

But aren't we supposed to change them at the Daylight Savings Time switch? And how do people in Indiana know when it's time to change them? Isn't it Indiana that is the one state that doesn't have DST?

[Thomas]

Yep. 10 years when not in use.

[Charlie]

Arizona doesn't have DST

[Jeff The Drunk]

A 9 volt is actually six AAAA size cells rolled up in one package. Maybe the cost of ingredients has gone up and it affected the price of the 9 volts more because they are more complicated to make?

Just a guess though.

[Steve Barker]

maybe in 1977 they were a dollar apiece.

[George]

Likely a lot has to do with quantities produced. D cells used to be extremely common because they were used in flashlights. Hardly anyone uses D cell flashlights anymore. Commonly used sizes such as AA and AAA haven't changed much.

[Stormin Mormon]

Heavy duty aren't rated for smoke detectors. They go dead soon, and don't have enough energy to do much good.

[Stormin Mormon]

I pulled apart some 9 volters. A couple of them had rectangular flat cells. The quad A are too short to work in AAA devices.

[Stormin Mormon]

Probably all being bought by the Chinese, so they can sell it back to us?

[jeff_wisnia]

I believe it was only one certain parts of Indiana and I think that got tossed out about five years ago so now the whole state observes DST.

Except in the Navaho nation.

And, BTW Hawaii doesn't observe DST either.

And just to be completely anal, the correct term, at least according to the gummint, is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time, which if you think about it seems to be better english too.

Jeff

[Twayne]

Shipping costs are way up with the price of fuel and weight of the batteries, plus it's an opportunity to add some hidden profits, etc.. All the related insurances for shipping, storage, overhead, lights, heat, etc., are all up. Remember, those things are escalated all thru the system from the ore accesses to the final retail destination; several steps involved there, each with a price increast that's passed along. And then there's the taxes.

It stinks. And remember, our pres said there IS no inflation!

[clare]

Not nearly all 9 volts use 6 tubular batteries. Some also use a stack of waht would be more closely described as "button" batteries - like a dagwood sandwich.