GI - did you see the reviews on that costco link? most throw these lights under the bus 
Its worth the price, and they are probably okay quality.
It comes down to how bright, how many batteries and how often used. AAA batteries give low runtime and lose brightness quickly (alkaline), and get expensive quickly. Rechargeable AAAs can be substituted and will maintain brightness longer, but keep in mind 3AAA has as much juice as 1AA.
These lights are hopefully decent quality, low quality lights will die in a few weeks to months of heavy use. If you use them daily and put many hours on them low quality lights start failing, the switches don’t work, the circuity malfunctions, the threads and body warp or wear, the reflectors or glass get loose or break etc. Hopefully Duracell is decent to good quality
AA or lithium ion (learning curve and dangerous explosion risk if mishandled) can give more brightness, but cost more, you want rechargeable in either li ion or AA which is more cost and you don’t want to loan them to anyone because of explosion risk and money invested. They are typically flashlight enthusiast lights with a learning curve and are much more fun
3 AAA = 1 AA?! didn’t know that. thanks!
So for that - 1 AA takes up less space than 3 AAA, what would you recommend for 1 or 2 AA, under $20, lots of light with Alkalines?
FWIW… I have last years Duracell costco lights the ones with half orange peel reflector. For no apparent reason one of the 3 just up and quit working. Something in the tailcap switch just quit. I never use these lights. I just pulled it out of the drawer the other day to play around with it and its dead…??? strange. They all worked fine last year.
It doesn’t work like this, LED chips need about 3V, so 3AAA is already over 3V. To use 1AA required more expensive boost circuitry and is harder on the battery. It is certainly available, but think $50-100 each instead of 4 for 15.99
4AA batteries are great for some high power lights, there are some like the Starry light and EA4 and others that can get as bright as a car headlight with 4AA (preferably eneloop rechargeable batteries).
Now don’t buy the starry light ($25) or EA4 ($75), the starry light uses a plastic body that wears out the threads and the EA4 has poor heatsinking, but they are examples of excellent output lights, i don’t know other models well enough to recommend one, though i have one on order, and check BLF reviews for any light your considering
This is a very nice double A flashlight:
Just ask freeme for the code. It is a little more than you want to spend but is worth every penny.
Look at this blf user list:M4D M4X deals - Astrolux WP1 and WP2 LEP
You might find something different that is a little less in price.
Jetbeam-1 MK is a fine single AA flashlight. Output is around 135 lumens. I own a few.
+1 for Jetbeam. Some don’t like the twisty, but it makes for a very reliable light AND cheap. I’ve seen them for little over $10 delivered. All day long at $13.99. When they go on sale, I stock up and gift them to friends.
Also look might look at Klarus Mi7 (even though mine was a dud). 330 lumens on high with AA (NiMH, if I’m not mistaken, to take advantage of higher current output). Decent output from a single AA alkaline. 3 output levels, strobe SOS beacon, battery level check, electronic lockout, metal side switch. Instant access to high, low and strobe. And should you opt for 14500s in the future, output ramps up to around 700 lumens. I think Martin (M4D M4X (sorry if I butchered your name)) has a discount code that gets it close to your budget and they now include a clip! Despite my dud, I like the light enough to buy another. Besides, the parasitic drain I’m experiencing is easily nullified using physical lockout.
I like that the Klarus and the Jetbeam offer you the flexibility of dual power sources. I think with a 14500, the Jetbeam is around 500 lumen.
I personally prefer to NOT run alkalines for long term because eventually one will always leak on you and when it does, chances are your flashlight is toast. Because of the low cost of the Jetbeam, I use them to burn through all of the questionable capacity AA’s I find littered through out my house in various junk drawers at differing levels of discharge. Throw a couple in a holder in my pocket for when my current one runs dry.
Second reason I (and most in here, if I’m not mistaken) prefer NiMH (other than keeping crap out of landfills) is because you’ll get more lumens out of your light with them. While their output voltage is lower, quality cells (even not so quality cells) put out more current. Of course if you are totally against using NiMHs, alkalines, especially in AA form, are very ubiquitous.
If you don’t mind pink and if they still have them, Xtar was selling out their WK50 lights for $7 on ebay. Clicky tail switch, memory, 4 levels and did I mention $7? Ugly as sin, too so there’s the added advantage of people NOT having any motivation whatsoever to steal your light. lol
I’ve had many 3xAAA lights in my day. Virtually all of them eventually had a battery leak in them. Finally, one of the most important reasons I opt for single AA powered lights is because then you only need a single battery to power them. That goes a long way towards keeping me functional.
I agree with Mkduffer. +1 and a 
Lumintop Worm 4
Extremely exspensive 3 aaa cell flashlight. Just take a look for fun.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1013999391/moonlight-0?ref=nav_search
WTH is that price tag? :exclamation: Does it run continuously for half a century without the need to recharge the light? :nerd_face:
Check out this active group buy. Closes on the 15. AA flashlight, 800 lumens off Li-Ion, 400 off AA. Under $20.
New product, so untested.
This thing looks like the lights that are free with coupon at Harbor Freight.
I have those Duracell lights your talking about. It maybe good as back up to your back up light but that’s just me. It starts off bright but the batteries die quickly. I prefer w light with a reflector. As you zoom in you lose lumens. Its not a very efficient light. You’ll be changing batteries every 30 mins if you actually need it on the high setting. If your fine with the low setting maybe 2-3 hours. I have the minimag pro as well. Its much better then the Duracell pack of lights. Much better quality maybe around 90 mins of runtime. But alkalines fall off quickly under load. I used rechargables in it. More power under load. Alkalines have so much internal resistance they waste half their energy trying to get the energy out. Now for powering a clock or a digital display nothing beats alkaline. But for anything thst needs power forget it. But you’ll keep the battery business going. But for $20 I’d get the warsun x65 takes 3aa and can take lithium if you ever go that route. Or the convoy x3 takes 3aa or 26650/18650. There’s also the thrunite 2a v3 archer and 1a v3 and t-10. But alkaleaks really suck. I was hard headed for awhile and still have like 300 aa batteries. Because there like $25 a hundred online. And I can use my lanterns off them during hurricanes. But I switched to NiMH imedion,Duracell, odec, amazon pro. Much better then alkaline could ever be. A 4 pack of duracell rechargables from Walmart for $10 will replace 2000 alkalines.
If your determined on a store bought light. The rayovac 330 lumen sportsman isn’t bad. 3xaa and the 250 lumen 3aaa sportsmen. Walmart hws a ozark trail 600 abd 700 lumen light fkr $20 one zoomable one not. Both take 6xaa I prefer a reflector (or not zoomable).But I suggest spend the $25 or whatever it is on the convoy x3 or the warsun x50 or 65 which ever has fbe new emitter.
X50 $13
http://m.banggood.com/Warsun-X50-XM-L2-3Modes-1200LM-Zoomable-LED-Flashlight-p-1020998.html
Convoy x3 $27 convoy quality is solid though 960 lumen reflector based light
http://m.gearbest.com/led-flashlights/pp_47159.html
My personal opinion is go with the convoy x3 and you can use all the alkaline batteries you wish and if you get get into lithium well it can take those as well. Its probably the most powerful light your going to find in the 3xaa format especially for under $30 there are some powerful 4xaa lights $40-50 like the ea41 the upgrade to the ea4, the thrunite tn4a. They last about a hour on 1000-1100 lumens bit that’s with rechargable aa. On alkaline I got around 15 mins on turbo. They can’t handle a load and overcome their own resistance. I really like my ea41 and would by another same with tn4a hi But I don’t suggest high powered lights if you refuse to upgrade to rechargable batteries. Just won’t get the most out of the light. I’d use alkaline in them during a natural disaster or emergency but on a low mode.
Basically a scam like the G700
Even with the highest quality components its not worth that price and 5mm LEDs putting out 700 lumens, are they lying?
If it is truly S30V, it won’t be a cheap light. That is a $$$ powder metalurgy, sintered stainless steel developed originally for knife making. I don’t even think its available in round bar stock form, suitable for flashlight turning. Standard availability is .25 or less plate stock, and its very hard on tooling…. IIRC. Knives using S30V start around the $60-70 range… FWIW.
You can bang out a million knives in China using AUS-8, 8CR13MOV and sell them for $5-10. Doing the same thing using S30V, would yield production volumes in the ~100s (ball park, if that), and pricing to match.
Since its useless as a flashlight, its more of an expensive tent-spike hammer. A galvainized pipe or a rock would yield the same result. LOL
This is a cool & useful Kickstater flashlight.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/powerpractical/sparkr-and-sparkr-mini?ref=nav_search
Turn that sparker into a defensive stun gun then you’d really have something. 
BTW, looks like the big one is probably powered by 18650.