Batteries

Is it just me, or have the price of batteries gone up significantly the past few years?

MBtGE showed me a cheap source of 4 D-Cells.  Your big-box home centers like Home Despot often have big cheap plastic flashlights on the end of the aisle.  It comes with one of those big block cube of a battery with 2 springs on the top.  These are often called a lantern battery.  The whole thing is often much cheaper than a pack of 4 D-cells, but if you pry the casing of the cube, inside, is 4 D-cells.  But don't destroy the lantern battery upon purchase.  Maybe the thing you need the D's is for light and heck, it comes with a cheap disposable flashlight.