Batteries were not included because at that time they added to the price of some products significantly. Later they became cheaper. But you are right, not including batteries companies lost more in a long run.

Likewise, there was a time when including instructions consisting of many pages could take time and money from procurement department.
But certainly not now, when you can simply link every engaged party to a page of your company’s or organization’s website.

Clearly sorting your “packages” on your company’s procurement page you save lots of time, money and energy. 

The other challenge is to make them read.

That’s why I hope there will be time when we all can read on the door: “Procurement Department (Accounts Payable included)”

🙂