# Is Amazon Prime worth it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 22, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963 "2013-10-22T19:48:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/41 "2013-10-23T15:51:01Z")
Amazon doesn’t deliver anything except in Seattle and a couple ? other places; everywhere else it uses the standard carriers. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/42 "2013-10-23T16:41:05Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Amazon doesn’t deliver anything except in Seattle and a couple ? other places; everywhere else it uses the standard carriers. I believe they’re on the verge of same-day delivery in major metro areas, and will use their own fleet for the purpose. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/43 "2013-10-23T16:54:40Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Amazon doesn’t deliver anything except in Seattle and a couple ? other places; everywhere else it uses the standard carriers. A dude in an unmarked truck delivers stuff to me here in Cincinnati. I believe they have a warehouse in Northern Kentucky. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/44 "2013-10-23T16:57:50Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > A dude in an unmarked truck delivers stuff to me here in Cincinnati. So you’re going to tell us all your stuff “just fell off a truck”? ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta811](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jacobsta811/32/2893_2.png) [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/45 "2013-10-23T17:53:23Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > That’s not how it’s worked for me. Does it depend on where you live, or the day of the week you order? > > I’m gonna go look at my account to doublecheck, because I’m not getting stuff delivered in two days. First, I assume you are paying for prime and are not choosing “standard shipping” instead of two-day shipping at checkout, and are ordering directly from [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) (ships AND sold by [amazon.com](http://amazon.com)) ? If so, you should be getting 95%+ of everything in two business days or less, unless you live in a very rural area where UPS takes an extra day or Alaska/Hawaii. Not much actually ships two day air, they optimize their warehouses and such to get it to you in two days via ground shipping when they can. But placing an order on say, Monday morning, normally means you should get it on Wednesday. (and it should say - Guaranteed delivery with a date). Items for me usually ship within 6 hours of ordering. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/46 "2013-10-23T18:29:10Z")
Prime is advertised as “2-day shipping” and 99% of the time, that’s how it goes. However… I have caught them doing the thing where they decided it shipped from somewhere close enough to me that standard shipping would be 2 days or less, so they didn’t pay extra for 2-day shipping. Unfortunately I live in the middle of nowhere, so even if UPS claims that shipping from, say, Milwaukee should only take 2 days to get to me, it seldom does. I’ve called and bitched at Amazon a couple times when my 2-day order takes 3+ days, and they say they’re sorry and maybe will throw me a $5 gift card. It doesn’t happen very often, though. It absolutely doesn’t work for me the way **AuntiePam** describes; if I order on Tuesday, it’ll be here on Thursday. A lot of the time I order on Thursday or Friday, it’s here on Saturday, though technically they have until Monday/Tuesday to get it to me. I loves me my Amazon Prime. Never gonna give it up. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/47 "2013-10-23T20:08:19Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Two-day shipping doesn’t mean the item arrives in two days. It means it ships (leaves the warehouse) in two days. Not true in my experience. It is shipped with the intention you get it in two days after it becomes available. Once in a while it sits on USPS’s truck an extra day but that isn’t Amazon’s fault. Often with some items you are guaranteed to get them on day of release even. ETA: When I started using Amazon in the 1990s, I would often get packages within a day or two just naturally. This made me resist getting prime after it became available but at some point getting stuff that quickly stopped for the most part and I would often wait days so I joined Prime. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/48 "2013-10-23T21:38:06Z")
I checked six months of my account. I did get a lot of stuff in two days, but a few Prime items took longer. I’m in a rural area too, a small town with no door to door delivery for mail. Most of my Prime stuff comes via UPS and it’s delivered to the door. So it’s not as slow as I thought. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/49 "2013-10-23T22:14:34Z")
Thanks all! I need to mull it over. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/50 "2013-10-23T22:22:13Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > It must vary by region. I am in Virginia and several times I have ordered an item at 7:00 PM with free Prime shipping and it arrived the next day! I think it varies less by region than by what warehouse things come from. I live within 50 miles of one of the warehouses, and if they are where it is shipped from, it can come within a day. But for some reason most of my orders are shipped from KY, and that takes 2. \*\* Auntie Pam\*\*, if you order from Friday-Sunday, it tends to take longer in my experience (often Wednesday rather than Tuesday as you’d expect), but most of the rest of the time two days is correct. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/51 "2013-10-23T22:26:31Z")
I have gotten non-Prime free shipping items in 1 to 10 days; it frustrates me not because of the slow end but because it’s so erratic. It seemed like the more urgently I needed something the more likely a week would pass before it showed up, while things that were of no time issue at all or going onto a shelf showed up the most quickly. I really hated paying for premium shipping when most times it was a waste of money… until. I like Prime because it means I get 18 shipments out of twenty two days after I click the button, 1 shipment the next day, and the odd one that seems to take forever because there is a holiday weekend screwing things up. The speed is nice, but the consistency is the prize. I think most of my stuff is shipped from New Jersey, which is not all that close. ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta811](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jacobsta811/32/2893_2.png) [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/52 "2013-10-23T22:35:40Z")
With non-prime shipping, what is happening behind the scenes (especially if you order \> 1 item), is that they are trucking your item from one warehouse to another (or ordering & waiting for restock in a close warehouse) so they can sent it to you in one package, or they are trucking it to a closer warehouse themselves before they put it into the UPS/USPS/Fedex shipping stream. With prime they have less room for that sort of thing - if your item is in a close warehouse, it ships ground, in a far warehouse it ships air, and if they are in different warehouses, you get different packages. So not only do you get packages faster, you get more of them because your order doesn’t always end up together. ---
**Author:** ![Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kansas_Beekeeper)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/53 "2013-10-23T23:00:07Z")
I live in a rural area, about 30 miles from Topeka, KS. I routinely get Amazon Prime orders within 2 days, sometimes the next day. Amazon does have a big warehouse in Kansas, so I’ve got to pay sales tax, but delivery is quick. I love Amazon Prime. Today my toaster died. Rather than go out of my way and stop by Walmart or Target on my way home from work, I spent about 5 minutes on Amazon and my new toaster will be at my door Friday when I get home from work. I like Amazon product reviews, because Amazon don’t seem to delete negative reviews (as some other online retailers seem to.) ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/54 "2013-10-24T16:52:37Z")
Just my experience but: 1. Especially during the holidays, standard shipping from Amazon seems to go to the back of the line and can take a day or so to leave the warehouse. 2. Items that show up as available for same day delivery in my zip code tend to get delivered the next day with Prime two-day selected. 3. If you really need something next day, it seems to be cheaper to pay for next day on top of Prime versus from standard. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/55 "2013-10-24T17:12:59Z")
Definitely worth it for me. Love the two day shipping and I’ve actually found quite a bit to watch from the Prime movie/TV library. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963/56 "2013-10-24T19:12:38Z")
> [@tim-n-va](#): > > Just my experience but: > 3) If you really need something next day, it seems to be cheaper to pay for next day on top of Prime versus from standard. This is a good point. One benefit of Prime is you can have almost anything delivered overnight for $3.99. Much cheaper than without Prime. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-amazon-prime-worth-it/671963.md?page=2)