Elgin's Battery Specialty Store has Power to Please
September 23, 2007
By MIKE SULLIVAN Staff Writer

ELGIN -- Joleen Rechkemmer might well have ended up managing a fast-food restaurant, but considered the field fairly well saturated as she was mulling business opportunities about 10 years ago.

During a trip to Davenport, Iowa, Rechkemmer's curiosity was piqued when she happened upon a local Batteries Plus store.

"I thought it was an interesting business," Rechkemmer said. "This was unique -- and it's still unique. There aren't too many stores just like this."

Patrons looking for batteries for their car, a camcorder or a hearing aid likely will find a replacement in the store at 352 S. Randall Road in the Otter Creek Shopping Center. Given the plethora of battery-powered devices on the market these days, stocking batteries represents a major challenge, Rechkemmer said.

However, because Batteries Plus is a franchise system, Rechkemmer said she has a resource to help with inventory control. She said the company operates a Wisconsin-based support center, which has access to reference tools and makes them available to franchisees.

Even so, Rechkemmer said the burden is on her because she decides what batteries to stock. "If we don't have it when people come in here, they're disappointed and they may never be back."

Although the mix of batteries for sale is quite varied, watch batteries top the list, partly because Rechkemmer installs them in her customers' watches, she said.

The biggest revenue generators are car batteries, which line store shelves to near-capacity. But obtaining batteries for laptop computers represents the most vexing challenge, Rechkemmer said, due to the increasing number of portable PCs on the market, all with differing power requirements.

"And when a customer's laptop (battery) dies, they want it today," Rechkemmer said.

"Or they don't think about it until they're going on a business trip -- and absolutely need it."

Some customers, she said, are puzzled over the failure of a laptop battery, particularly if it's barely a year old.

Rechkemmer said she tries to explain that a battery may end up dead due to a number of factors. "They have a finite life anyway," she said. "A lot of people don't understand, especially if they plug in their PC most of the time, that the heat from the drives can degrade the battery."

Although Rechkemmer applauds advances in batteries that increase longevity, she observed that multitask devices such as cell phones can push power demands to the limit.

"Cell phones used to function just as a phone," she said. "Now they (serve as) iPods, MP3 players, TVs, and cameras. So the batteries -- even though they're better -- aren't going to last any longer because they do so many more things," she said.

Although pleased at the store's decade-long track record, Rechkemmer said she would like to make inroads in commercial battery sales, which have lagged behind walk-in residential.

"I'd like everyone to consider Batteries Plus a household name," she said. "Every business would like that."