Every time the remote control doesn't work, or my daughter gets some new toy, it usually means looking for batteries. If I don't have batteries, this means going to the store to get some. The problem is that lately, I have noticed that they no longer sell batteries in two or four packs.
Look at the picture of the Walmart display of batteries above. It's got eight packs, ten packs, twelve packs, sixteen packs, even a twenty pack. This is great if you are going on a four thousand mile drive and your only mode of entertainment is a Sega Game Gear that ran on six batteries, which drained in about three hours back in the day; but not if you are any type of normal person with standard electronics from 2011.
I remember the days back in the 90's when I would buy batteries for my Tiger Handhelds(remember those?), or for any number of toys I owned that ran on batteries. It was really easy, just go to Walmart or any store and get a two pack of batteries, sometimes a four pack if necessary. About $2.00 and you had your fully functioning toy at last.
Now, it's IMPOSSIBLE to find a small pack of batteries. The smallest pack I could find contained six batteries, and was not sold in the display. It was being sold as one of those last second hot items people grab when they are already standing in line on the aisle waiting to check out. On the main display, the smallest sized package I could find contained eight batteries and cost $5.97.
I recently had the batteries in the remote to the main television in our house go dead and was in need of a pack. My daughter doesn't really have any toys that she plays with regularly that run on batteries and I own no electronics that run on standard batteries, nor does my wife. So I just needed a two pack, but of course, I can't just buy two. Batteries are not like potato chips; I can certainly just have one.
I don't know when Duracell, Energizer, Rayovac and all the other battery companies got together and decided that batteries would no longer be packaged in any form other than massive unnecessary overload. The only place I can find a two pack of AA batteries is a convenience store, and they are always off brand that will last all of twenty minutes.
Since this is 2011, I figure they would understand that most of our stuff runs on lithium batteries or has some sort of internal, rechargeable component. This means we use far less standard AA or AAA batteries now. So, this repackaging idea of forcing us to buy eight batteries in a single purchase could be to sell more batteries they know we don't need and wouldn't have normally bought.
My mom said she has to buy batteries for things at her job, and she said she has also had issues with not being able to buy smaller packs of batteries. The woman who was working checkout at Walmart told me that you can sometimes find batteries in a four pack on the aisle if you're lucky, but that she hadn't seen that type of pack in a while.
The whole idea that you can't just walk into a store and buy two or four batteries is ridiculous. Most people buy batteries out of necessity for a newly purchased item, or to make an existing item work again. Unless you are stocking piling for the apocalypse, nobody needs to purchase eight batteries at a time. We just want our remote controls to work!
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