My wife, a former financial analyst, has been pushing to cancel Amazon Prime. We don’t buy all that much stuff on Amazon, and as mentioned, non-Prime stuff is often also free shipping, especially over $25. Also, she’s sick of helping to pay for Bezos’ spaceships.
I’m resistant because I like Amazon Prime video-- their original stuff is hit and miss, but they also have a lot of offbeat older movies in their catalog that I enjoy. Plus I pay an extra $9 a month or whatever it is these days for Amazon Unlimited Music. I suppose I could switch to Spotify.
The problem with “Free delivery if you spend $xxx” is that you find a couple of items that you need and then hunt for other stuff you could well do without to get the free shipping.
Prime in the UK means ‘next day’ for most items, even same day in some places. (Well, the UK is slightly smaller than the US) so now, that has become the expected level of service. I recall when we moved into our present house back in the 70s that we would order stuff (on the telephone of course) and they would say: “We deliver in your town on Thursdays, but today’s Tuesday so too late for this week.”
What I have learned is to be sure that the goods are coming from Amazon and not from some other supplier as the conditions for delivery and returns can be very different.
Yes. I have things in the house that I bought mostly to get the cart total up to $25. And a coworker mentioned a website that would identify something for, say, $3.48, if you need to spend that amount to hit $25. But Prime users probably order stuff needlessly as well. Or they’ll default to getting stuff from Amazon rather than shopping locally or elsewhere just for the convenience.
In theory, my principle is not to pay for the privilege of shopping at your store (which also argues against Costco).
Before I started with Prime, what I did, and I think a lot of other people did (and still do), is basically not using Amazon for anything you need right now. That way, you add things to the shopping cart as you’re running low on them (much like adding things to your grocery list) and hit the check out button when you get over their minimum for free shipping. Plus, if there is something you need a bit sooner rather than later and you already happen to have $20 worth of stuff in your cart, that one item may put you over the threshold.
Yes, I always make sure all my items are sold by and shipped from Amazon. I will use things that are ‘sold by’ a third party, but I won’t buy something that’s ‘shipped by’ a third party unless it’s my only option, for the reasons you stated. Namely that you really have to exhaust a lot of other options before you can get Amazon to step in if there’s a problem. I always remind people that if something isn’t shipped and sold by (but mostly the shipping part) Amazon, you might as well get it from eBay because you’re getting about the same level of protection and about the same amount of care put into it’s packing and shipping.
And as someone else mentioned, Amazon has slowly blurred the line between what is and isn’t prime. Don’t get me wrong, every product page will very clearly say “Prime” if it’s one of their prime items. However, you can hit the “Prime” search filter and it will leave many, many non-prime items in the results. You’ll see some items that mention “prime delivery” or “free 2-day delivery” but they’re just words the 3rd party put there. Another one that I’ve had problems with (and been refunded for when I’ve complained) is that I can order a ‘Prime’ item, and then later go to my order history, hit the “buy it again” button only to find out that they sent a non-prime item (or sometimes an entirely different item) because the listing changed and I was magically expected to figure that out on my own.
I avoided using Amazon for much of anything when it cost a lot to ship. Being in Canada and not in the central urban area, generally shipping was a significant cost. Between “free shipping” and Prime, I find that reversed to logic - it was simpler to buy on Amazon unless I needed it right now. It was so much simpler to find things on Amazon, especially obscure things and for cheap. Want a bunch of garden hose quick connect adapters? $13 for 1 set at the store, $8.99 for 5 on Amazon with free shipping. Thermostat for a minibar fridge? Good luck finding the right one in the city - piece of cake (and only $20) on Amazon.
The only problem is that when you search for something on Amazon today, you get spammed by dozens of items in the list which are specifically NOT what you searched for. Search for a Wacom tablet, you get Huion, Gaomon, Xencelabs…
For me, the Prime membership is a little like insurance - I could do some complicated analysis of my out-of-pocket costs if I pay for everything vs. costs if I have health insurance or Prime … or I could just decide that I’m pretty sure that I want to have the option of getting medical care/ordering on line stuff if I really need it without stressing over costs.
Do to some sort of glitch, my Prime membership accidentally lapsed recently. I queued up a small order - popcorn kernels and some bathtub stickers, so nothing particularly heavy or bulky - without noticing this, and the postage was more than $17!! (I got my Prime membership back before I hit the “confirm” button.)
Shipping costs to a neighbor island in Hawaii State can be pretty atrocious, which is probably why the shipping cost was so high. But with that data point alone, I’m sure my Prime fee more than pays for itself.
I assume Amazon has adopted the Post Office model, where one price fits all vs trying to cost out every trip. I guess the trick is to have the volume to fill a truck.
Plus, one of the benefits of Prime is the video service. I have Netflix, and now Prime. I have Apple also, only because I am getting a free year with it for having bought our most recent iPhone.
You have to look beyond just straight up front money costs. Having Amazon Prime changed the way my family shops. Rather than my wife and I try to figure out who can drop by Home Depot for lightbulbs or Walmart for coat hangers after work and before dinner, we just order it through Amazon. Same for pet and school supplies. My wife has a certain contact solution, a certain facial cleanser, and certain shampoo. Rather than doing the hit and miss of going to the store/pharmacy/salon, we see if it is on Amazon first so we don’t have to waste our time running around for these specific things. You do have to watch prices though, sometimes Amazon is out of line.
This, especially when you may have to get the same product from a different supplier.
Mrs. L and I made a similar error at Sam’s Club last week. She likes getting the double pack of 18 eggs. Not long ago we paid about $5.50 for them. Having checked out, sitting in the car, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? $8.50!
I imagine with supply chain issues it pays to keep an eye on prices, even for things that you’ve bought at the same price at the same location etc. When the Dollar Tree can jack up prices across the board 25%…
I’m in Australia and the big attraction with Prime for me is free international shipping on stuff - they scrapped the AUD$49 minimum spend recently so now I can order stuff from the US even if it’s not expensive and still get it delivered free.
Given how hard it is to get retailers in the US to ship to Australia at the best of times (we’re on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, not on the fucking moon) basically ordering anything with Amazon Prime makes it worthwhile, and the fact you get Prime Streaming TV too makes it a no-brainer IMO.
Theoretically you also get two-day domestic delivery on stuff but that’s not entirely feasible right now because of all the flooding and COVID, and we’re used to domestic deliveries taking forever at the best of times anyway, so it’s neither here nor there.