We keep Prime for the TV, but dern...........yes music too. Seems HIGH, but........nowadays
PS Wife nearly stroked out on the increase
PS Wife nearly stroked out on the increase
Amazon increases the price of Prime nearly 17% to $139 per year
- Thread starter GON
- Start date
My Prime was just charged to my card (1/18/22) for $119.00 + $8.33 tax = $127.33. I suppose some day I might cancel but right now I'm not ready to give up my Prime Chase Reward card, last year I had $280.50 back, that easily pays for me membership.
I wish we had a Whole Foods here.
I wish we had a Whole Foods here.
If you've not paid shipping charges lately, you are in for a shock. Over $300 for 10 pounds to Germany, slow boat. Stunning.
I’m keeping it. I order a lot of random stuff on Amazon. I probably save $100+ just in gas.
Just think of the all the time saved by not having to shop at various retail stores verses clicking away on Amazon.
There are lots of competition on retail. Walmart, Target, eBay, etc. The retail business is not really that profitable and it really is the AWS that keep Amazon going.
You want good videos? Sign up for Netflix and pay $14 a month, they have really good stuff I "might" pay for someday. IMO Hulu is worth exactly what it is, 99c a month with ads, their contents are real bait and switch showing you "We have Demon Slayer" then after 1 month cut all the new stuff out and only keeps Season 1. It really is just a free TV alternative like basic cable IMO. Nobody expect Prime Video to be the best, just like nobody expect Kindle Fire or most Lab126 products to be Apple quality (more like Chinese grade stuff from Xiao Mi or One Plus) so don't price your prime membership with that as "savings".
In the future the real cost advantage of Amazon should come from not having to keep large retail sites like Walmart and Target, and use that to subsidize their shipping cost. This can be very profitable as they don't really need much extra cost per customer, sending the same truck out for twice as many items doesn't take twice as much cost per customer.
Costco's model is great and is what Amazon retail is aiming for, but I won't call Costco a monopoly and won't expect Costco to replace Walmart and Target. Investment wise I'm going all in on Microsoft, no retail needed. So far my gain on MSFT is 3x of AMZN. I will miss uncle Jeff as the leader though, you need a sociopath as a CEO to grow like that and JAW doesn't have the "not having a dad" mental scar that Jeff had, and won't be as crazy of a sociopath.
Joke from a friend in China:
One day their local delivery company said his shipment will be delayed unless he upgrade it to expedite for an additional cost. He said he'll keep waiting and instead downgrade it to an even later time and ask for a refund. The delivery guy got scared as they would be responsible for the additional storage cost and risk of loss. The item arrived that afternoon with no additional cost.
It might be a regional thing. I have a Whole Foods within 2 blocks from my house, Safeway and Trade Joe's 3 blocks, Target within 1 block, and Costco about 20 mins away. What I found is:
1) Costco usually have the best quality, regardless of price, but usually prices within reasonable range of others. When quality is not good they usually won't sell them.
2) Safeway usually have OK quality, prices all over the place, but usually will have something to sell and it is up to you to judge whether it is worth buying or not.
3) Trade Joe's usually have the best price, but quality is all over the place, same as Safeway you have to judge whether it is worth buying or not.
4) Whole Foods usually have something, usually quality is around Costco or slightly more than Costco, however the prices are usually "we have it as the last place on earth will have it, do you want to pay for it". Unless you absolutely need something and ran out everywhere else they would not be the first choice. The store is nice and they have a lot of unique stuff, exotic stuff (unless you go to ethic store they are exotic, but they are just common run off the mill foreign mom stuff really), but you go there mainly for the experience, and the deli (they have good deli), or Amazon return.
5) Walmart, you go there for price, not quality, nothing else to say.
Personally my order of preference is Trader Joe's, Safeway, Costco, Whole Foods, Walmart.
I just cancelled mine; I simply over shop just by having Prime; also quality of the products on Amazon is questionable
On my way from work to home I have 2 Walmart stores along the way; Also I'm thinking eBay will fill in the blank of Amazon instead if needed
On my way from work to home I have 2 Walmart stores along the way; Also I'm thinking eBay will fill in the blank of Amazon instead if needed
Hermann
Site Donor 2023
What? That can't be right. I two-day air stuff in from the UK on a weekly basis and it's usually $40-70 depending on weight. Even retail would only be like $70-100.
4WD
$50 site donor 2024
No doubt - but I meant buying nothing is the same price
Everybody got to eat.
We can buy higher end food items and fruit that are higher end than we can get at the local supermarket and this is one key reason for Costco . ... and paper goods ect are very good and well priced, as well as coffee beans of which supermarkets have garbage. We cant buy the quality frozen fish ANYPLACE in South Carolina that we can buy at Costco at retarted great prices.
So we pay and enjoy Costco.
Plus they are an authorized Apple reseller. Prices I pay are the best and just one item paid the membership fee for the year.
Bought my wife a Mac mini in Dec or Nov 2021 for $569.
Bought my wife AirPods Pro with Mag case in Dec or Nov 2021 for $169
Bought 4 20 inch OEM tires for my Chevy Truck at the same time, incredibly great price, no extra costs and BS which included rebuilding the TPS sensors.
Plus top tier gasoline at best anywhere prices.
Plus we love shopping !!! *LOL* and the membership fee is nothing compared to what we save on one item alone or just getting gas for the cars.
We also have a Sams Club membership which we have had a long time, they dont compare to Costco but my wife likes the Trout she can get there. We both eat different kinds of fish and Hands Down Costco for me as I get up to 4 different kind of quality fish there and my wife Sams Club for quality fresh Trout.
Also as an example, I dont know if you saw my other post someplace in here. I was looking for adjustable Dumbbells, well at our LOCAL Sams Club (not available at this price on line) They have right now a model I thought I was going to get until I found something else I am interested in, actually a few but the Bowflex 552 were $249, right now, Amazon price, shipped and Sold by AMAZON is $80 more @ $329
So, if a membership at one of these places is a place one likes to shop the membership fee is nothing but not all people spend money on the same things, so its not for other people.
Just like paying for Amazon Prime I will never do because it offers me nothing but offers others something important, whether its shipping, music or TV. I personally hate the company and its CEO but use them for everything I can without paying them a fee.
They are no ones friend and algorithms are in place to suck as much money out of people they can. Even their "FREE SHIPPING" is misleading for many who dont realize when they check out the check out page DEFAULTS to the person paying for shipping, even though they advertise on the product page "qualifies for free shipping" if they dont click for free shipping they pay for shipping because paying is the default, even though it "qualifies" for free. What a freaking slime garbage company taking advantage of people who dont realize. I dont know why, maybe I was raised this way, but I hate people getting taken advantage of and Amazon is the worst of the worst big companies that do. Garbage for ethics. Never mind that they own everything including the most influential news paper in the country right in the nations capital Washington Post.
Hmmmm .. .interesting huh ? but no politics in here.
*LOL* Darn it, another long post!
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Not the best on earth but close to it. The membership actually makes you money if you get the credit card. I’m getting almost $400 this year. I pay it off monthly so no fees, cheap gas, cheap food court, the best travel and rental car deals sometimes by a huge margin.
In your area, is Trader Joe's considered an equal to regular grocery stores ? In Ohio, they basically have (1) store for each larger city (7 stores total). Cleveland and Columbus, the two biggest cities, have (2) locations each, Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo have (1) each. Most people - the ones that don't shop there - tend to think they only sell organic stuff, non-GMO products, cater to vegetarians, and so on, i.e. somewhat of a specialty grocery store. While they do have a lot of that stuff and they do cater to hippie or yuppie type crowds, once people go there, they see that they sell regular stuff, albeit in limited choices. There are many items we like from there but we have to make a trip to go there because of it's location.
