a new OEM replacement battery in March. Off the shelf, it still needed a top-off charge and seemed to work as designed since then.
FYI, I don't think this is normal, unless the battery has been sitting on shelf somewhere, unused for a long time, as almost all new batteries come pre-charged at or above the standard charge levels nowdays (12.5-14.5v)...
This seems more like a alternator and/or voltage regulator issue to me...
I have replaced 2 OEM batteries in the past 2 years (1 in my Expy, the other in my son's Impala) with Napa Golds, and as soon as I installed them, the vehicles fired right up nottaproblemo, and both showed 12.6-13.7v on the dash, and I have never had to trickle charge them at all, even in the dead of our near-zero winters or hot 95F summers