Alkaline in top 5 sellers

In the UK we have a company called Poundland,they have just hit the Billion pound a year turnover and in there top 5 five best sellers is Alkaline batteries.,that is a lot of batteries.

Indeed. But more amazing is how many alkalines are still used in places where NiMH's would do equally well (or cheaper, or better).

Perhaps 10+ years back, NiMH's were mostly crap imho (self discharge, for one) but good for some purposes. Li-ion tech was relatively new in consumer goods. Chargers mostly crap as well.

But today, with Eneloops and similar, and good chargers available? Save a very few applications (like say, a smoke detector), no excuse not to use rechargeables. I'm thinking a large part of the public just hasn't caught up yet. Or they're too lazy to bother with battery chargers, and alkalines aren't expensive enough to make them bother... Or both.

Yes, I think it's just laziness which is what keeps the alkaline industry in business. When Eneloops came out 8 years ago, they offered all the benefits of an alkaline, and none of the drawbacks. More cost effective too, unless you're using them in very low drain devices like a clock or remote control. But if you leave alkalines in those devices for many years, you risk leaks, so the cost benefit may not work out even in those cases.

I can count on one hand, the number of AA and AAA alkalines I've bought in the past 8 years. And that hand could have no fingers or thumb!

WalkIntoTheLight said:

Yes, I think it's just laziness which is what keeps the alkaline industry in business. When Eneloops came out 8 years ago, they offered all the benefits of an alkaline, and none of the drawbacks. More cost effective too, unless you're using them in very low drain devices like a clock or remote control. But if you leave alkalines in those devices for many years, you risk leaks, so the cost benefit may not work out even in those cases.

I can count on one hand, the number of AA and AAA alkalines I've bought in the past 8 years. And that hand could have no fingers or thumb!

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It has nothing at all to do with laziness, Joe Public are just not informed of the advantages in the Straight from Pack rechargeable battery and why should the battery industry market them any more than they do.There must be millions and millions of Alkaline sold on a daily basis and for most devices they are a perfectly good source of fuel.High drain devices such as Cameras and DAB radios need a different type of fuel and this is where Joe Public does look to rechargeable but the Eneloop type is still hardly known to Joe Public.

mcnair55 said:

High drain devices such as Cameras and DAB radios need a different type of fuel and this is where Joe Public does look to rechargeable but the Eneloop type is still hardly known to Joe Public.

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You're right that Eneloops are not known or commonly available, but "Duraloops" are available almost everywhere. I'm not sure if they're as good as real Eneloops, but I doubt most people could tell the difference. If people are willing to use low-self-discharge NiMH batteries for some devices, I think it's just laziness if they don't use them in everything.

My theory is that most people don't use any NiMH technology anymore, and they don't want to bother with recharging outside of their devices. All their electronics that use rechargeable batteries use lithium ion built-in custom batteries, and you plug the whole device into a specific cord to charge it. IMO, that's more hassle than a generic AA/AAA battery that you take out and charge in one charger that does it all, but most people probably don't agree.

For everything else, they use alkalines, because they don't have to bother recharging them, even if it is more expensive to keep buying them.

I tend to think that it is more of the crappy chargers available in stores and mostly non LSD nimh cells such that most consumers end up with a bad experience using rechargeables vs alkalines. Those who look at decent smart chargers find out to even get 4 batteries to use plus charger it can cost 30-50 dollars. Most folks don't want to forgo the initial cost for it all. With only 4 or 8 batteries it takes awhile to make a difference in taking alkalines out of use. If you can get them for 50 cents each vs about 3 dollars for LSD nimh you can see one can buy 6 alkalines for the price of 1 nimh cell alone adding in a charger and only 4 cells can have each battery costing 8 dollars each (overall cost) if you don't buy more and more nimh batteries to disperse the cost with you could see having to recharge them 16 times each to break even. In many applications that are low drain alkaline can outperform up to twice as long so you could see 32 recharges to the break even point. Until you invest a bunch in a collection of nimh cells to help offset the charger cost over more and more batteries.

The average battery buyer just buys the cheapest battery that it says to use on the device....and, might look at the ads if they "want a good one" and pick one that says it runs longer.....but going to the store to get the shopping list plus something to make the TV remote work again is unlikely to trigger the sudden ambition to ALSO get charger, etc...

So they get the Alkies.

They sell a ton of batteries around the holidays, as the toys take batteries....and they sell a ton to go in all those clocks and radios and (gasp) flashlights, etc.

Most people don't even know they can substitute a rechargeable for a primary, even as a concept....so, the "choice" is never on the table in the first place.


So, for the vast majority of alkie purchases, they are primarily made by uninformed people. (The overwhelming majority of the population is in this group, so, sales are good)

Also keep in mind that there are quite a few people out there who think alkaline batteries are better performers than NiMH due to the fact that they are 1.5V nominal vs 1.2V nominal for NiMH. Although it is well-known around here that NiMH can actually provide higher voltage to high draw devices, this is not the way many people see things. They figure that, if they buy NiMH batteries, rechargeability is going to come at the cost of weaker performance.

For people 30+ years old, some of it may have to do with the poor performance of rechargeable batteries when they were kids and first introduced to them. They will forever think of them as crappy batteries compared to alkalines. But mostly it is laziness and too much money to waste on stuff they throw away.

WalkIntoTheLight said:

For people 30+ years old, some of it may have to do with the poor performance of rechargeable batteries when they were kids and first introduced to them. They will forever think of them as crappy batteries compared to alkalines. But mostly it is laziness and too much money to waste on stuff they throw away.

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I really have to disagree with you especially here in the UK.Decent quality rechargeable batteries and chargers are readily available from most good high street retailers and have been for the last 30 years or more but i can buy 8 pack AA,s for a couple of quid £2 and loads of deals on Duracell like buy 4 and get 4 free.The big hitters like Duracell and Engerizer advertise on tv as often as the big brand leaders such as coffee/coke etc usually with the claim of "Our best battery yet".It is certainally not in the makers best interest to push too hard rechargeable as they sell billions of Alkaline daily around the globe.

just remember that the typical dollar/pound store buyer wants cheap.
nevermind the fact that a good rechargeable system can pay for itself quickly.
ever notice the absence of rechargeables in those places?
the o.p stated the first.
i stated the second.
a close third would be laziness.lack of planning.
like not thinking to have a spare set charged and putting the dead ones in the charger when you swap em.
and lets not forget that many things including batteries in a dollar store are not a good VALUE.
if you do a $ to oz watthours or pounds you are often better off buying standard size packages at a regular store.

TEEJ said:

So, for the vast majority of alkie purchases, they are primarily made by uninformed people. (The overwhelming majority of the population is in this group, so, sales are good)

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snakebite said:

just remember that the typical dollar/pound store buyer wants cheap.
nevermind the fact that a good rechargeable system can pay for itself quickly.
ever notice the absence of rechargeables in those places?
(..)
and lets not forget that many things including batteries in a dollar store are not a good VALUE.
if you do a $ to oz watthours or pounds you are often better off buying standard size packages at a regular store.

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Lesson learned:
It's easier so separate people from $1, and do that 100 times over, than to separate them from $40 only once. Even if that $40 deal has better value for the buyer.

I'm guessing that is the real reason shops like this Poundland are still around (and if one goes belly up, a new one pops up soon after :shakehead ).

snakebite said:

just remember that the typical dollar/pound store buyer wants cheap.
nevermind the fact that a good rechargeable system can pay for itself quickly.
ever notice the absence of rechargeables in those places?
the o.p stated the first.
i stated the second.
a close third would be laziness.lack of planning.
like not thinking to have a spare set charged and putting the dead ones in the charger when you swap em.
and lets not forget that many things including batteries in a dollar store are not a good VALUE.
if you do a $ to oz watthours or pounds you are often better off buying standard size packages at a regular store.

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You do not understand the Poundland system and how successful it is and how it sells major brands and not tat.

In low drain devices and devices using either 9V batteries or are used very shortly at a time , such as many remotes , wall clocks and multimeters etc. , alkalines will pricewise be the better option in the long run ( if disregarding the leaking issue ). There are a lot of such devices around most people's households.

For me it's not either recharbles or disposables all the way ( I use both eneloops and alkalines ). I only use my rechargebles in devices where it is economically viable. But I have started keeping a closer eye on my alkalines ( writing down the expiration date , and checking the charging state with my ZTS regulary ).

How does the leaking in modern alkalines compare to the leaking in alkalines from 10 or 20 years ago? I haven't used alkalines much in a long time, but the few I have used in recent years seem to be okay as far as leaking in concerned. But this is a very small sample, so I'm curious whether or not the major manufacturers have improved things, or if they're about the same as they've always been.

In the past, most of the leaks I experienced were from cells that had been sitting around for a few years. But recent cells seem to have expiry dates 10 years in the future. Does that mean they're not going to leak for 10 years, or is it just marketing hype?

WalkIntoTheLight said:

How does the leaking in modern alkalines compare to the leaking in alkalines from 10 or 20 years ago? I haven't used alkalines much in a long time, but the few I have used in recent years seem to be okay as far as leaking in concerned. But this is a very small sample, so I'm curious whether or not the major manufacturers have improved things, or if they're about the same as they've always been.

In the past, most of the leaks I experienced were from cells that had been sitting around for a few years. But recent cells seem to have expiry dates 10 years in the future. Does that mean they're not going to leak for 10 years, or is it just marketing hype?

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I've found that they leak more today than 10 years ago personally. The 10 year expiration dates to me are meaningless because I seriously doubt they changed anything in batteries at all but maybe raised the price on them to cover them leaking more the last 5 years of the date.

Lynx_Arc said:

I tend to think that it is more of the crappy chargers available in stores and mostly non LSD nimh cells such that most consumers end up with a bad experience using rechargeables vs alkalines.

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I agree completely. Unless you come to forums like this the average consumer has no way of dealing with the following three scenarios presented to him on the rack:

1) Good batteries, crappy charger
2) Crappy batteries, good charger
3) Crappy batteries, crappy charger

The 4th scenario is rare: Good batteries, Good charger.

Even if the consumer has the choice of the 4th scenario, tempted by price alone, they shoot themselves in the foot back to one of the first three categories.

From a tinfoil-hat conspiracy aspect, I sometimes feel that the manufacturers actually know the difference, but sabotage the market to drive the consumer back to alkaline.