Unraveling the Secret Origins of an AmazonBasics Battery
One of Amazon’s smallest and most popular products has a surprisingly large footprint
I heard the “pop!” from my living room as a brand-new pack of Amazon batteries spontaneously exploded on the kitchen counter, oozing a gritty black substance in fits and spurts. The small, unassuming item is one of Amazon’s most popular “in-house” products sold under the AmazonBasics label. With nearly 20,000 customer reviews, its popularity dwarfs that of most other AmazonBasics items, which include electronics, homewares, and random odds and ends.
The batteries are also highly rated — had I received a defective set? I scoured the comments page for the alkaline battery for reviews containing the word “explode,” revealing dozens of experiences like mine. One person said the batteries had burst in their wife’s breast pump. Others had toys and appliances ruined by leaky fluid. Some customers blamed this on alleged Chinese manufacturing, but Amazon vaguely claims in the product’s description that they are “made in Indonesia using Japanese technology.”
Over the past month, I have tried to uncover the hidden life cycle of this simple AmazonBasics battery. Amazon is fiercely secretive about its corporate footprint and masks its operations through a discreet…
