Isn't that normal? They've always been about $5 a piece here in Ontario
Canadian Eneloop sources
- Thread starter Mike G
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Dave_H
Flashlight Enthusiast
Recently yes, but going back 10-15 years I recall a 4-pack of AA's could be had for around $10 if
you shopped around. Inflation yes, but that much...
Dave
letschat7
Flashlight Enthusiast
34.98$ USD for 18 Energizer AA at pharmacies much higher though.
One thing I learned a couple of years back, waste of time and money to get in the car, and go hunting for anything locally that isn't common as dirt. Just order online. (Maybe you can make an exception for clothing.) But in the end, you're wasting your time Something you can never get back. Putting more wear and tear on your car. Using up precious fuel. (Let's not get into an EV vs. ICE vehicle discussion here.) And, in the end, you're not even guaranteed you'll get what you want. Just order online. Even with shipping charges, cost you less than using up the fuel in your car.
letschat7
Flashlight Enthusiast
Shopping locally helps with the job situation. I'd rather pay a bit more for my rebranded Eneloops locally than buy some Fujitsu from NY or some Panasonic Pros online from Amazon and I've done all this. I'll probably not go to CVS very often though.
I used to think that way too. But honestly, the only ones you are helping out are the face-less business owners. If they can save an extra $1.oo a day by firing a couple of employees, they'll do it! Without a care in the world. Sadly, that's the world we now live in. Spending a bit extra locally does nothing for local workers.
letschat7
Flashlight Enthusiast
Well I don't mind.
Checked my Superstore and double-checked a nearby Shopper's, no PC rechargeables. Might be they're discontinued. Care to share a pic of yours, Dave? I don't think their existence is documented anywhere on the internet currently.
If I was set on current-gen Enerloops, that's what I'd do... but at six bucks a pop, I sure ain't! And don't even know what gen they are. Not entirely the store's fault, but Amazon has those same Enerloops (here) on sale now for $3.50/piece. If they're gen 3 or better, that's an actually fair price, though I don't want to gamble on it since there's really no way to tell.
"Buying locally is good" only gets you so far, in my book. Same with "made in Canada" or "made in America", with many companies learning that if they can get that sticker on their product, they can crank the price up +500% or somesuch, without actually making the product better, and people will deliberately pick it over the competition... so, for me, the product still has to actually be good, and offered for a fair price. No free lunch.
Ikea Laddas are a good example of a good product at a fair price from a local-ish store. No Ikea in my town, so I'm still ordering online, but at least it's shipping from a store in my own province.
I take the bus these days, so it's the other way around for me... I'm dropping five bucks on the day pass anyways, might as well get some mileage outta it
Just a little detour... the scenic route, if you will.
Also the way I see it, the whatever gen eneloops the laddas are, were the best AA in existence when they came out. So it's not like they are bad now. They may not be quite as good as the newest gen, but that's a sacrifice I am willing to make for less than half the price.Checked my Superstore and double-checked a nearby Shopper's, no PC rechargeables. Might be they're discontinued. Care to share a pic of yours, Dave? I don't think their existence is documented anywhere on the internet currently.
If I was set on current-gen Enerloops, that's what I'd do... but at six bucks a pop, I sure ain't! And don't even know what gen they are. Not entirely the store's fault, but Amazon has those same Enerloops (here) on sale now for $3.50/piece. If they're gen 3 or better, that's an actually fair price, though I don't want to gamble on it since there's really no way to tell.
"Buying locally is good" only gets you so far, in my book. Same with "made in Canada" or "made in America", with many companies learning that if they can get that sticker on their product, they can crank the price up +500% or somesuch, without actually making the product better, and people will deliberately pick it over the competition... so, for me, the product still has to actually be good, and offered for a fair price. No free lunch.
Ikea Laddas are a good example of a good product at a fair price from a local-ish store. No Ikea in my town, so I'm still ordering online, but at least it's shipping from a store in my own province.
I take the bus these days, so it's the other way around for me... I'm dropping five bucks on the day pass anyways, might as well get some mileage outta it
Just a little detour... the scenic route, if you will.
Yep, they might be half the cycle count of the latest Eneloops, but as long as they're comfortably less than half the price, they're still the better deal. (Also, quick aside, Laddas are gen 1, Ikea specifies 1,000 cycles which is correct for gen 1)
Ladda AA ... 1.9Ah x 1,000 cycles = 1,900 lifetime Ah / $1.75 per cell = 1,086 lifetime Ah per dollar.
Eneloop AA (4th gen) ... 1.9Ah x 2,100 cycles = 3,990 lifetime Ah / $4.71 per cell = 847 lifetime Ah per dollar.
And that assumes you want to buy Eneloops by the 24 pack... admittedly, I kind of do, but still, the 8 pack is 665 L-Ah/$.
I do like the Eneloop AAA 24 pack on Amazon for $60, however. 630 L-Ah/$ vs. Ladda AAA at 500. I mentioned it before, but that's a good deal. A great deal, even.
Also, just for fun...
ACDelco AA Alkaline ... 2.85Ah (upper bound) / $0.37 per cell = 7.7 L-Ah/$
Energizer AA L91 lithium ... 3.5Ah / $2 per cell = 1.75 L-Ah/$
NiMH is the way
I think a prospective rewrapper could make a decent chunk of change selling gen 3 Eneloops at Ladda-like prices...
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letschat7
Flashlight Enthusiast
We sell Canadian products at one of my work places, well technically both. Anyways I am much happier to offer a Made in Canada tool to a customer over Chinese but most just want whatever is cheapest. It is most definately a selling point and it is valued a lot higher than Brasil, Columbia, or Mexico.
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Yes, domestic manufacture is definitely a good thing. But, like I said, only so long as the product is good, and priced fairly. If that sawblade isn't any better than cheaper options from abroad, I'm not buying it... if it costs 5x as much while being only just as good or even twice as good, I'm not buying it, either.
And you really have to watch out for fake "made" in Canada stickers. Quick aside to show what I'm talking about. A while back, there was a Canadian optics company - I won't name them, since as far as I'm aware they don't do this anymore - that exploited a legislative loophole that to the best of my knowledge still exists. Only a portion of a product has to be made here to qualify as made in Canada. The actual glass - you know, the most important part of any optical product, the part you're buying it for - came from China, and was bought as an off-the-shelf, ready-to-use product, all the lenses already mounted. You could use it as-is, and their competitors even sold those exact products as such. So, what they did was, they machined a very snazzy-looking aluminium casing for it that they'd just mount the optic in using glue, original housing and all, and that was enough that they could advertise the product as made in Canada with no fine print. The casing served no other purpose.
Ultimately, it's a failure of legislation, but those who choose to exploit such failures to sucker their customers have dirty hands nonetheless. It should go without saying that buying their products and supporting the practice is a very bad thing.
Similar loopholes exist in other nations. Especially for ignorant watch-buyers who insist only on "Swiss-Made." timepieces. Well, "Swiss-Made" nowadays is meaningless. Since, legally speaking in that nation, only 51% of the parts need to be made there. The rest can be made anywhere (usually China). Watch is then assembled, and can legally bear the "Swiss-Made" label on its dial. Before being sold world-wide. It's the difference between being LEGALLY Swiss-Made vs. ACTUALLY being Swiss-Made. If you want the latter, the cheapest watch you can get is anything from Rolex.
And that's why I've stuck with Casio and Timex
The strap is arguably more important than the watch, anyhow. Putting a Marine Nationale strap on my Timex cost almost as much as the watch did, but now it disappears when I put it on, and reappears whenever I need to look at it, like magic! Good stuff. The simpler leather strap I put on my old Casio when the resin strap broke opened my eyes to how much of a difference it can make. Incidentally, said watch was 20 bucks when I got it ten years ago, and went for a solid... I wanna say 3 years, maybe up to 5, in storage, and didn't lose more than a few seconds. It's still dead-on to this day. I use it as a daily alarm.
Dave_H
Flashlight Enthusiast
I was able to confirm, no PC Rechargeable cells seen at a local Superstore, only alkalines. Scratch that one. I suspect they were discontinued some time ago. I can get a pic of cells a bit later.
Dollarama sells Panasonic NiMH AA (1100mAh) and AAA (720mAh) 2-packs for $5, made in China; nothing close to Eneloop equivalents.
Dave
letschat7
Flashlight Enthusiast
letschat7
Flashlight Enthusiast
They uped the standards a few years back. I have a Swiss made Cabot that I imported from the UK somewhere in all my camping gear. Usually with teh worst offenders of abusing Swiss Made you hear about them when doing research. An in-house watch costs a lot. If not for Rolex I could never have afforded one.
I heard those rumors. Looks like they finally increased it to 60%. Still, I hate the legal word-play involved. But again, it's legal.
