But it is also true that some people depend on them. This concerns them.
To people who just rummage around in a kitchen drawer in quest of a generic silver battery to stick in a remote, it doesn't apply them. Like Alice asking the Cat which road to take when she has no idea where she is going, my advice would be the same: "Then it doesn't matter..." But it occurred to me that it does matter if one cares, and people might have strong opinions. And maybe differing ones, too.
I admit that I will not buy any battery other than Duracell, even though they cost a lot more. I want things to work when I use them, and I want them to work no matter how infrequently I use them. I even look at Evereadys disapprovingly as my wife proudly pulls them from the shopping bag while exclaiming they were on sale. Heck, my lips are probably pursed in disdain.
The Evereadys look cheaper. Flimsier. They look like a car could flatten them like an old possum, leaving them lying in the road with their innards hanging out. (I mean batteries, not the possum)
Their silver exteriors have a shoddy, garish look, as if they were batteries dressed up in battery costumes for Halloween.
Contrast them with Duracells. Two halves that hermetically seal together with finely machined tolerances (I saw it on television!) that make a satisfying metal clang as they meet and are silently and invisibly microwelded together. The battery looks like it was turned on a metal lathe and anodized in black and copper. It is the kind of battery that would go into a very expensive, heavy object like the night vision goggles that the kid has in 'Jurassic Park'.
But then, I thought...they appeal to me because they radiate quality, but...are they really "quality"? I have always seen them as a consistent, highly reliable, mass produced item that delivers. I have never thrown one away new, out of the box.
So. Are you an Eveready man or a Duracell man?
Or neither?