KATHY TOPPINS
EDMOND — Store carries 2,000 battery types, offers tech center
BY KATHY TOPPINS
THE EDMOND SUN
Batteries Plus opened for business on Monday to provide Edmond customers a one-stop source for every type of battery, from a tiny hearing aid battery to a 6,000-pound forklift battery. The new Batteries Plus location at 1601 S. Broadway carries 2,000 different batteries.
“If we don’t have the battery a customer needs,” said owner Marietta Dennis, “we’ll order it or make it.” In addition to the 2,000 battery types she keeps in stock, Dennis can order any of 40,000 different batteries from a warehouse that serves 360 stores nationwide.
Battery Plus stores include a Tech Center where a technician can design, assemble, rebuild and test custom battery packs. Customers, Dennis said, frequently request on-site building of battery packs for cordless tools, razors and vacuums, as well as USB backup systems. “We do a huge amount of work like that,” Dennis said. “Instead of throwing away the product,” Dennis said, “they can have a new pack made.”
Technicians also build battery packs for numerous commercial applications. Oil-related companies, Dennis said, are among their biggest commercial customers.
“A lot of people don’t think of us for car batteries,” Dennis said, “but we carry them.” The store offers free auto battery testing. Dennis said they also can replace batteries in iPhones.
Jonathan Knutson, store manager, said there are so many batteries available, it takes time to learn their different chemistries and how to match the batteries with their applications. He does the research, when necessary, Knutson said, but usually he knows right away what the customer needs.
Batteries Plus is also a certified battery recycling center.
Dennis said she had been living in Barbados and Grenada before moving back to Oklahoma in 2001. “When you’re from Oklahoma, you come back to your roots,” she said. In Oklahoma, Dennis started looking for a business to run.
She researched Batteries Plus based on her husband’s experience when his laptop computer’s CMOS battery died. Her husband, she said, was told he would have to ship his computer to the manufacturer just to replace the battery. Visiting Atlanta at that time, he stopped at Batteries Plus and walked away with a working laptop.
Dennis opened the family’s fourth Batteries Plus location in Oklahoma with her son, Brandon Boozer. Although Edmond is Dennis’ fourth store location, she said, “opening a store in Edmond was in the family’s original plans. We see Edmond as a thriving community.”
ktoppins@edmondsun.com | 341-2121, ext. 112
