Battery Stores Re-Charging Hall Road Landscape

With the December 2011 opening of Batteries Plus, Macomb Township is now home to two major battery retailers.

Setting up shop in one of Hall Road’s long-vacant storefronts, Batteries Plus joins neighboring Battery Giant in supplying local buyers’ demands for everything from cell phone and camcorder batteries to those needed for snowmobiles and motorcycles.

“Batteries Plus holds every battery you could every need,” said Jesse Henry, manager of the Macomb location. “We have access to 30,000 types through our warehouse and we also carry 10,000 types of light bulbs.”

The new location also offers a Tech Center for on-site work.

“What really sets us apart from our competition is that we have our own Tech Center in our shop where we can rebuild things like contractor battery packs,” Henry said. “I had a woman come in the other day with a Walkie Talkie that takes a special battery pack and we were able to rebuild it right here.”

And it is the sheer variety of batteries in stock that sets stores like Batteries Plus and Battery Giant apart from the auto and electronic stores selling the battery-powered and digital devices themselves.

“Within six months, a lot of the big box retailers stop carrying batteries for the camcorders, digital cameras and cell phones they sell,” Joe Ventimiglia told The Oakland Press after his store opened in 2010. “Some cell phone stores don’t even carry replacement batteries; that’s how they get people to buy new phones.”

Batteries not in stock at the Macomb locations are shipped from the retailers' respective central warehouses, and can also be purchased online. 

“We stock everything from cell phone and cordless phone batteries to digital cameras and laptop (batteries), as well as those for Power Wheel cars for little kids,” Henry said. “It depends on what you’re trying to get, but most things take us about a week, and we do offer special deliveries for certain things.”

In addition to batteries, Batteries Plus also stocks thousands of incandescent light bulbs, compact fluorescent lights, LEDs, fluorescent tube lights and halogen lights used by contractors.

Although 100-watt incandescent bulbs are to be phased out this year under the federal light bulb efficiency standards approved in 2007, 75-watt bulbs, and 40- and 60-watt bulbs will not be phased out until in 2013 and 2014, and are still available.

In another form of customer service, both Batteries Plus and Battery Giant also offer free battery recycling programs for customers.

To learn more about the recycling programs or view complete inventories for the stores, visit the Batteries Plus and Battery Giant websites.  

The new Batteries Plus location is located at 18443 Hall Road, west of Romeo Plank, next to . It is open Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.-5p.m.; and Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.