I bet the ’80s was a good decade for Energizer, Duracell and their ilk. I mean, it was a good decade for sharkskin, too, but the ’80s had to be the absolute peak for these battery makers. Suddenly, it seemed like everything required portable juice: that new-fangled wireless TV remote, the Walkman, my futuristic calculator watch and, of course, all of those awesomely high-tech electronic toys like Simon (which actually had its launch party at Studio 54!).
Instead of regulation, you could just let market forces handle the problem by not purchasing gadgets unless they use standard batteries. After all, with the exception of cell phones, these aren't necessities we're talking about. Canon's non-elph powershots use AA batteries. We have three of them in our family for this reason. But most people would rather buy the smaller elph cameras with proprietary batteries.
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