can't win for losing

Today I managed to save some money by doing some leg work.

I've bought my son a small digicam for his upcoming 3rd birthday. At $40 I have not, I hope, overspent. But the batteries I bought with the thing just don't work. So I went to the mall where the bus terminates, and had a look for a new set of rechargeable AA's and a charger. I didn't want to spend too much because I have plenty of both back in Japan.

First I went into "The Source" (formerly RadioShack). They wanted $21. I went two doors down to Black's, which had the same unit for $20. Then I went to the drug store and found, to my amazement, the same unit once again. This time it was $17. Thinking it odd that all three would have the same charger, I decided to push my luck and try the grocery store. Yup. $15.

Once I got home I tried the new batteries and was disappointed to find that these wouldn't work either. Also, the original batteries didn't need to be charged. It was then that I did what I should have done at the beginning: I looked up the camera to make sure that it works with AA's.

Nope. $14 later, I had paid for a new proprietary battery, its charger, and their delivery. Sigh.