That explains a lot. The last package of Duracell batteries I bought all died before their expiration date. Store-brand is better than that.

I chose .ml specifically because I wanted to be on a Marxist-Leninist instance, because .ml is maintained by Lemmy’s developers, and because most instances aren’t defederated from it so I have access to whatever content I wish to see. I actually just browse local 99% of the time since I find the content here plenty engaging on its own. It reminds me of the old forum days, before modern social media watered everything down. I particularly value being more exposed here to the perspectives of the global south, and non-USians generally. USians aren’t a majority of the world, so we shouldn’t expect our views to be normative.

The correlation is certainly worth researching further, but I don’t think this is sufficient to prove causality.

I’ve started checking how they claim they’re shipping. If it says 2-4 days but doesn’t list the method, I avoid it. Also, always check the seller before purchase. I’ve noticed a lot of Israeli accounts on eBay, mostly shipping from New Jersey.