Writing here a few thoughts on Amazon Prime membership after seeing the discussion in the recent post about Amazon Prime adding a fee to keep Prime Video ad-free.Â
For years I’ve had both Walmart+ and Amazon Prime. Walmart+ came cheaply for me: first a year came free courtesy of Swagbucks, and then I got another 1.5 years very cheaply by stacking an Amex Offer and another deal they sent my way. While I found Walmart+ useful, when mine expired a few months ago I decided against renewing it.
Then, in August, my Amazon Prime membership expired. I have a bunch of years locked in the old rate of $119 with Gift of Prime, but decided to see if I really need Prime. (The Gift of Prime memberships can always be converted into Amazon gift balance credit.)
For two weeks I tried managing without Prime. The $35 minimum shipping was annoying, but it also gave me a couple of days to think before each purchase, while waiting for my cart to reach the minimum. I was also very surprised at how slow everything shipped. I kind-of assumed that if, as a Prime member, I got everything within 24-72 hours, then without Prime it would come 2-5 days. That’s what I often experience with eBay or other retailers. But the few experiences I had without Amazon Prime offered extremely slow deliveries – it would take a solid week for anything to arrive.
Why did I finally rejoin Prime? For a completely different reason. I use Amazon Pharmacy, which for me turns out to be much cheaper than using insurance. While you don’t have to be a Prime member to use Amazon Pharmacy, the steep discounts are only for Prime members. See, Amazon always gets you somewhere. 🙂 (Mark Cuban’s costplusdrugs I believe offers similar prices to Amazon Pharmacy. I’m not sure they have everything available there.)
I’m still holding on without Walmart+, though I might rejoin if there’s a good deal or maybe if I get the Amex Platinum card which comes with free Walmart+. Having free Instacart+ with Chase Sapphire Reserve is a helpful alternative, especially in conjunction with the monthly/quarterly credits there from Chase.
Update: Another point I forgot to mention: without Prime I lost the 5% cashback rate on my Amazon Prime Visa card. (Rate is just 3% without Prime). The extra 2% on Amazon, plus various Prime Day promotions probably does help cover a good chunk of my annual Prime fee.
For the life of me I’ve never understood why anybody would pay for Prime, Walmart+, etc. All it does is feed a greedy corporate CEO’s bank account.
A person can very easily online comparison shop in todays world, & do better. I’ve tried Prime trials before, & would never pay a monthly fee for it.
Opposite view here. Even with Prime my orders were rarely meeting the two shipping. Walmart+ on the other hand I had 7am orders delivered by the local Walmart by 3pm. This has been incredibly helpful for things like diapers, etc. that I can’t wait 3-4 days for Prime to fail me.
Amazon’s prices have also increased to the point that they aren’t always cheaper than Walmart. I do much more comparison now instead of blindly buying from Amazon like I used to.
A few years ago dumped Prime after 20 some years with Amazon. Dumped Amazon completely actually. Good to see the lawsuit today, hopefully their monopoly will end. For me, I can’t support them due to how they abuse their workers.
I still remember the early days of Prime, and myself wondering why anyone would be so impatient and require stuff bought online to arrive in two days. How that has changed. Though I did too notice that Amazon’s standard shipping, even years ago before I joined the sucker’s club, slowed down to increase the spread between Prime and non-Prime.
While I do rely on Amazon for nearly all of my needs and wants these days, it’s also a painful realization that we have allowed a gigantic corporation to monopolize so many aspects of our life. Your story is a sad reflection of that… that in this country, in order not to overpay for healthcare, you needed to hand a bunch of money over to this mega monopoly who will in turn milk you for even more purchases…
Exactky, A Sad reflection… that in this country, in order not to overpay for healthcare, you needed to hand a bunch of money over to this mega monopoly
A Sad Young empire that going down the drain more year after year like its ancestor the Britosh empire
The country that has Billions of dollars to spend every month to help elongate the Ukriane war and cause more human casulaties or spend for its military footprints all over the world to cause wars but no money for its own people to help its people basic needs also not every year adding to goverment debt ceiling and or gvmt shut down
I find walmart + to be more useful for us. Free delivery from store- sometimes same day and not having to go in for groceries and have them delivered too is great.
I also liked Walmart+ a lot. I still find a lot of odd-and-ends type items that Amazon carries and Walmart doesn’t really carry. But for the basic dry goods I could totally live with just Walmart+.
I never pay Amazon for shipping.
Whether you believe it or not, you are always paying for it.
I got two years of prime free with bank and credit card promotions. Very handy, love the fast shipping , no price minimum, the credit card point promotions and the local return process. Found that I ordered stuff I really didn’t need. Hate the dynamic pricing which can fluctuate by the second, the terrible search capability and the overall design of the checkout process ….. Bottom line for me……not worth it if I had to pay for it……although the pharmacy option is interesting if there is a savings
All I want out of Amazon Prime is the 2-day shipping. That’s it. No photo storage, prime video, kindle unlimited, blah blah blah. They need to offer a 2-day shipping only tier to their membership options instead of an all or nothing approach. For that reason alone, I’m dropping prime when my subscription is up for renewal in February. It’s not remotely worth $140 if all I use is the 2-day shipping option and nothing else.
how old are you and where have you been living till now?I Island of dramatica /!! This is how capiltalism works. they shove things to your throat till you choke ! Tell that to Direct TV or Cox or Dish, tell them I only want to watch and pay for Espn not all other 100 Disney chanels that comes with it and see what rep says !! Tell that to CostCo , Tell them I only want to pay for one month of membership and watxh they look at you like you are crazy but not those greedy A holes . I can make you hundreds of exanples like these
Oftentimes you can get better pricing from regular pharmacies by just asking for alternative payment structures or forms – what’s important is that in most drug pricing clauses pharmacists are not allowed to offer it proactively. Crazy, eh?
Kind of like how Plan B is $60, but if you ask specifically for Plan B generic, it’s $8. The pharmacists/drug companies are banking on nervous, ashamed teens and young adults not knowing any better. There should really be more transparency all around
I know that’s right. For varied reasons.