Are the Higher Prices of Medical batteries a Scam?

           

            I had to work on Monday afternoon at OCADU, so I had a little sleep first. I posed for Nick Aoki’s class. He’s a fast talking, cool sounding young guy who’s been teaching at OCADU for about ten years. He’s actually the only art instructor that I’ve seen in a bar outside the context of the school, at least since the Beverly Tavern closed down back in the 80s. He came with some friends to the Tranzac during the Monday night open stage a couple of years ago.

            After work I went to Shoppers Drug Mart to buy batteries for my bike’s red flasher and my guitar tuner, which both take CR2032 3V batteries. When I finally found the battery shelf, the CR2032s had a space but they didn’t seem to be in stock. I inquired at the drug counter and the pharmacist paged someone for me. He led me to another shelf that also had batteries and the kind I wanted were there. On the shelf near the drug counter the price for the batteries would have been $8.99 but these were $6.99. The employee explained that the more expensive ones were medical, but that didn’t explain what there was about them that made them worth more. Someone on an online forum suggested that medical batteries might be more stringently tested to guarantee longer life, but I wonder if they’re exactly the same.

            I stood on the sidewalk in front of my bike under the streetlight, fumbling to change the batteries on my flasher. I had to use my jackknife to pry the old batteries out and to cut open the battery packages. Then when I put the batteries in the flasher, they didn’t work. I pried the batteries back out and peeled off the stickers that tell you not to swallow the batteries and that have the image of a diapered baby with a red line through it, which I guess means that babies could be harmful to the batteries so keep them away. Once the stickers were off, the flasher worked.

            I watched the second episode of Cheyenne and it was just as bad as the first. Clint Walker is as stiff as everyone’s dialogue and all of the action choreography. Even seasoned guest actor Ray Teal who played Sheriff Roy Coffee for years on Bonanza, couldn’t save it. It’s interesting how when a good actor is surrounded by bad actors and bad production values he or she just phones it in as well. I’ll give this show one more chance before deleting it.