For those old enough to remember using batteries for everything, Radio Shack’s “Battery of the Month Club” is probably a fond memory. You would go into your local Radio Shack store, sign up, and be issued a card. Each month, you would take the card back and redeem it for one free standard Radio Shack AA, C, D or 9-volt transistor battery. The salesperson would mark off that month on the back of the card, and you would return the next month and repeat the process. It was an ingenious promotion. Batteries only cost a few cents, so it was a cheap way to bring people into the store. The hope, of course, was that you would purchase expensive electronics gear while you were there. Of course, you only received ONE free battery, so unless you got a 9-volt cell, you needed to purchase between 1 and 7 more batteries to power anything. That was the genius of it. As with anything, there were those — usually teens — who figured out how to beat the system by obtaining a card from each Radio Shack store in their area. Remember, there were no computers to track how many times they signed up. About once a month, they would make the rounds and wind up coming home with about 15 free batteries. It was just enough to keep their equipment running without having to shell out any of their allowance.
