When will Amazon start charging "prime members" for shipping?

philipp10 said:
I used to believe Walmart would at least be able to compete with Amazon, but my opinion has changed. Walmart doesn't even have a clue if a given item is in their store at a given time. I have been burned 3 times where I look up an item on Walmart.com and it says, yep, it's on the shelf of my local Walmart. Get in the car, drive there.....NOT THERE. I now buy most of my stuff from Amazon and the only error they have made so far was an item that was damaged, and they exchanged that quickly. Walmart stores are an absolute mess, their employees are miserable. Recently shopped Target, like night and day between the two stores. Walmart's physical stores are a hinderance in competing with Amazon, not a positive. Yet they cannot abandon their stores as that is their main source of income. Amazon is a machine that won't be stopped.
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I agree with your assessment. Where we may digress is that I don't think Wally is trying to compete with Amazon at all. They pay low wages and seem to be fine with lackluster employees. My local Wally is absolutely horrendous for anything needed form an employee. But as a single dad with 3 young kids, the alternative is not all that better and the cost is substantially higher. Price rules for basics and Wally knows this. At least this is my experience here in Hudson Valley NY area.
 
I
philipp10 said:
I used to believe Walmart would at least be able to compete with Amazon, but my opinion has changed. Walmart doesn't even have a clue if a given item is in their store at a given time. I have been burned 3 times where I look up an item on Walmart.com and it says, yep, it's on the shelf of my local Walmart. Get in the car, drive there.....NOT THERE. I now buy most of my stuff from Amazon and the only error they have made so far was an item that was damaged, and they exchanged that quickly. Walmart stores are an absolute mess, their employees are miserable. Recently shopped Target, like night and day between the two stores. Walmart's physical stores are a hinderance in competing with Amazon, not a positive. Yet they cannot abandon their stores as that is their main source of income. Amazon is a machine that won't be stopped.
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Yeah, the walmart website is a total disaster, I only buy birthday presents for my kids friends there as they always have a good selection of Lego in stock! I think walmart could still make a big dent in Amazon with a decent website and inventory system. Even if it takes a billion dollars to implement I think they would make that money back in a couple months...
Canadian Tire here has each stores full inventory online and easily searchable and is competitive with amazon on what they carry atleast. During covid this came in especially handy.
I'm kind of surprised that amazon doesn't sandbag and delay shipping for non-prime free shipping. Most things are still here in two days or less.
 
Amazon is planning a split between Prime Video and Prime shipping, I betcha. They're already branding themselves this way.

I also suspect they'll flatter existing subscribers by declaring that if you don't let your grandfathered subscription lapse, you'll continue to get both. Just don't fall off the wagon!

It hasn't escaped my attention that they now want even more money to watch stuff on HBO on Amazon, or that it takes a week to deliver "2 day" packages. I continue to cross shop-- walmart and ebay are real good contenders.

Walmart's $35 threshold for free shipping is absurdly easy to hit-- get some staples like a 12 pack of paper towels and the local store will deliver that alongside what you really wanted, which is coming in the mail.
 
philipp10 said:
I used to believe Walmart would at least be able to compete with Amazon, but my opinion has changed. Walmart doesn't even have a clue if a given item is in their store at a given time.
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The physical store aspect of Walmart isn't the real point here. Walmart's website and how it tries to indicate if items are available in a store are really more of a convenience (or inconvenience when it's wrong !). As for the competition between Amazon and walmart.com is solely the online aspect of Walmart, not their physical stores.
 
It's pretty simple. If you don't want to shop Amazon don't. People are just wanting to get worked up over the simplest things these days!

🤣
 
y_p_w said:
Heavier vehicles cause considerably more wear to roads. There’s far more pressure on the roads. We have one freeway stretch around here where heavy duty trucks aren’t allowed. While still old, the road surface has few cracks compared to the next stretch where trucks are allowed. I also remember talking about driveway wear with an HOA. There was severe wear at the place where garbage trucks stopped. The rest was worn but only needed a sealant after over 30 years.
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Except if a truck has 100 deliveries and is done on an established route, that is 100 vehicles that did not have to make the trip. There is no free ride.

The speedy delivery and quality products are a huge benefit to people like me. For more than 5 years I and my home care giver cared for my elderly father until he died peacefully at home at 95. What ever we needed I could go click click click and there it was in 1 or 2 days.
Amazon played an important role in me being able to keep my Silicon Valley job and, more importantly, allow my father to have a good life.

The same goes for my dear Mother who passed away 10 years before my Dad. I was able to easily and quickly get them what they needed.
I would have been driving all over the place without Amazon. That's my experience.
 
If anything I would suspect they'll just keep inching up the price a couple dollars at a time like they have been. I believe it was $10 at launch now we're upto $14
 
ripcord said:
I'd guess that deliveries are close to a net neutral for road wear and tear. For most deliveries, someone didn't drive to the store.
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1) Either you charge the package fee so the buyer pays it, or
2) You make it inconvenient for the buyers so they have to drive to the physical store, and pay for it in time and gas, wear and tear to the car.

Unless you are taxing someone passing through your state or town you are not making anything out of this, it is a tax you from your left pocket or right pocket argument.

Reality is, people want to pay for the road for the use to benefit them as they live there. Whether it is for their own cars or for delivery to their home. They just have to pay it one way or another, directly or indirectly.
 
PandaBear said:
What is actually happening is Amazon Retail would have lost money had they not have prime program. Not that they lose money on Retail or Prime, at least that's the company line 4-5 years ago.

Most of the money is in AWS because its nature is very profitable. So the correct investment play is realy to buy Microsoft (because of Azure) instead of Amazon. My investment from the last 4 years is actually going much better with Microsoft than Amazon, really.
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They're spending a ton of money just on the entertainment programming that comes with Amazon Prime. Some of the stuff is extremely expensive. A membership cost more than Disney+ or Hulu, but there's a ton of original programming on top of the delivery benefits.
 
PandaBear said:
1) Either you charge the package fee so the buyer pays it, or
2) You make it inconvenient for the buyers so they have to drive to the physical store, and pay for it in time and gas, wear and tear to the car.

Unless you are taxing someone passing through your state or town you are not making anything out of this, it is a tax you from your left pocket or right pocket argument.

Reality is, people want to pay for the road for the use to benefit them as they live there. Whether it is for their own cars or for delivery to their home. They just have to pay it one way or another, directly or indirectly.
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gathermewool said:
I‘m curious:

how much extra wear do they create?

how much extra fuel do they burn?
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I thought that the conversation was going into how fuel taxes pay for road building and maintenance. Which it does, but for highway funds. Most local road maintenance is paid for by general funds.

But there's no doubt that heavier vehicles on a similar footprint cause more damage to roads because they place higher pressure on the road surface. That's what I was really getting at. Semis are the extreme end, and I don't see them being banned. But sure a large delivery van is going to contribute considerably more to wear on roads than my small sedan.
 
Just looked up my Amazon orders in 2020. 147 orders, 63% under $10. Although I did have 15 items over $75 and 3 over $150. I think both Amazon and myself came out OK on this past years Prime membership. Don't use Prime video it's pretty lame. I like the Prime music and use it several hours daily.
 
Hermann said:
Just looked up my Amazon orders in 2020. 147 orders, 63% under $10. Although I did have 15 items over $75 and 3 over $150. I think both Amazon and myself came out OK on this past years Prime membership. Don't use Prime video it's pretty lame. I like the Prime music and use it several hours daily.
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Clarkson's Farm is quite good. Recommended even if you are not familiar with Top Gear nor Grand Tour.
 
Hall said:
The physical store aspect of Walmart isn't the real point here. Walmart's website and how it tries to indicate if items are available in a store are really more of a convenience (or inconvenience when it's wrong !). As for the competition between Amazon and walmart.com is solely the online aspect of Walmart, not their physic
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Hall said:
The physical store aspect of Walmart isn't the real point here. Walmart's website and how it tries to indicate if items are available in a store are really more of a convenience (or inconvenience when it's wrong !). As for the competition between Amazon and walmart.com is solely the online aspect of Walmart, not their physical stores.
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That's where I don't agree. The physical store ARE the point. They reflect poorly on Walmart AND they hobble the company if not used effectively. The physical and online, unfortunately are intertwined. As others have said, Walmart's website is shaky at best and cannot compare to Amazon's. If you were to build a competitor to Amazon today, you wouldn't start with the assets Walmart has.
 
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Jimmy_Russells said:
This is hilarious

30% fewer cars on the road due to people working from home, but they're worried about some delivery vehicles running around?

It's just a tax grab
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They are worried about 500 EVs not paying enough taxes and are raising registrations across the board on everyone so of coarse they are worried about a couple delivery trucks, it’s all a tax grab
 
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