If you are one of many who believes a dead cell phone means you’re cut off from the world, you may want to put the Battery Warehouse on your radar.

A slight hint of lead – the main component of a battery – hits the nose upon entering the quaint yellow shop on South King Street. It’s no wonder, as batteries from the size of a nickel to the size of a microwave fill the stock floor of 35-year-old Oleg Tatchin’s store.

What’s the most unique type of battery the shop has in stock? Tatchin struggles to answer because nothing is out of the ordinary for him. With an inventory that includes thousands of different battery types, he’s seen, and heard, it all.

He fields calls from frantic customers with low to no battery life left on any number of accessories ranging from keyless car entry devices to cell phones and wrist watches. Customers can’t find certain batteries anywhere—until they discover the Battery Warehouse, he said. The coin battery, which closely resembles a nickel, is the type of battery most customers find unique, he said. Turns out though, that is also one of the best sellers. Tatchin said he sells nearly 1,000 coin batteries annually.

The biggest money-makers are the car, truck and tractor-trailer batteries. The top name brands are Deka and Interstate batteries – selling for around $100 each. Tatchin tries to sell only American-made batteries because they are built better and last longer, he said.

The Battery Warehouse also supplies batteries for the Loudoun County Public School system’s information technology departments and fire panels. Several of the county’s fire and rescue vehicles are running on the company’s batteries.

When a customer buys a new car battery, Tatchin or one of his men install it in the parking lot while you wait—just like your neighborhood mechanic would do. The dead or damaged batteries are returned to the manufacturer, where they are taken apart for parts and recycled.

The average American household encounters 25 batteries in a normal day, Tatchin said. Do you have a cell phone, iPod, digital camera, remote control and television in the room with you? You’re in direct contact with at least five batteries.

“We’re becoming such an unplugged society,” he said. Since wireless devices lose their charge, Tatchin’s batteries fly off the wall.

For this reason, Tatchin believes “the battery business is here to stay.”

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