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Prime video just isn’t all that good and it sounds like ads are coming and shipping is still free over like $25.
Only reason to have prime is if you also have their credit card and order a decent amount of stuff there and/or shop at whole foods a lot for the 5% back. Otherwise it does add up at all.
Maybe it’s buying a new PC, but it’s been awhile since I am excited to get a package. I got most of the parts off other websites, and did get a new monitor on Amazon and was nowhere near excited about it.
There was no build up in waiting for it to come in. With Amazon I just like “it’ll come in in two days”, but with my other parts I’m repeatedly checking the delivery time, planning out what to do when X part comes in, etc.
A lot of companies now offer two day shipping for free (if you spend enough of course), and it’s just as good. Hell, I bought some batteries for a UPS that died on Monday from a battery wholesale site, and they arrived today. And that’s with the shipping saying it could be at least a week. The competitive advantage of Amazon doesn’t seem like it’s there any more.
Another thing you realize when you quit Amazon is that you don’t really need to be ordering so much junk. You just don’t. I promise. And when you do need something, I feel like I’m more confident buying the jacket or whatever from the company that makes it instead of sitting through a thousand knock offs and hoping I picked the right one among all the AI written reviews and titles.
I hate to be honest, but I used Amazon Prime a lot because:
I also save a shit ton of money. When I used to browse Walmart or Target, I used to buy a lot of shit I didn't need. I don't get as distracted with focused buying. I also order from Aliexpress if I can wait 30 days, and I have only been ripped off three times in several years, for a total of maybe $35.
I'm not saying my way is better, and certainly not if it's better for you, but it's been a godsend to the house-bound.
If Amazon genuinely fits your use case, more power to you. I think the problem is the average person being duped into thinking they need Amazon Prime as the default position.
It’s Surprisingly Easy to Live Without an Amazon Prime Subscription
Water is wet
But is it surprisingly wet?
Dude... We're trying to live without Amazon and this guy is just giving up prime??? What a martyr...
I don't have access to amazon at all, ao don't get the rave about amazon itself either.
Ive never understood the dependence on Amazon. It's not even a monopoly, I've never bought anything online that somewhere else didnt also offer the product, usually an online store specializing in that product.
Every time I've ordered something from Amazon, they always push Prime for fastest shipping. Then when you turn that down, they give you an option to pay a little more this one time to get your order shipped faster. I always pick the cheapest shipping option. The order generally comes just as fast as the fastest shipping, without paying the extra money.
They are going to ship according to whatever is easiest and cheapest for themselves if you pick the cheap shipping option. By now in most large population centers, Amazon warehouses are already stocked. Until they start cutting shipping costs, it will almost always arrive well before their estimates. So just save yourself the money and ditch Prime.
From what I've seen, the difference is that they either ship it same day, or wait a few days to ship it. It still arrives in the same amount of time from when it ships until I receive it, they just take their time (maybe artificially) in getting it out the door.
Exactly this. Once you place the order Amazon still has to get it from the wearhouse and ship it too you. If someone is already picking orders in that part of the wearhouse it makes sense to just grab it now rather than wait a few more days. Same with shipping. If the order is together they aren't set up to just hold it, they ship it.
I honestly have it for Prime Video. I don't watch it in any massive quantity but there are some shows on there I really like.
Prime games too, although I've noticed they offer less GOG games than they once did, and I refuse to install their app on my pc.
In my defense prime is very cheap in my country, because they haven't crushed the competition yet.
Buying anything on Amazon hardly seems viable anymore. There's so much counterfeit crap there, and a million low-effort rebrandings of the same stuff you can get on AliExpress for cheaper.
Shop local when you can, and at least shop not-Amazon for the rest.
Shop local when you can
Not sustainable for me, I price it from time to time and local stores are usually, at best, double what Amazon or even Walmart has it for and that's if the local store even has what I'm looking for to begin with
So my choices are Amazon or Walmart (or similar big name stores) and going to Walmart....yea fuck that it's a last resort for everything but groceries...
There's so much counterfeit crap there, and a million low-effort rebrandings of the same stuff you can get on AliExpress for cheaper.
I keep seeing this over and over, but I order a lot off Amazon and I've never had a problem with it. Don't know if I'm just incredibly lucky or what, but the only times I get counterfeit / cheap Chinese crap is when I order it on purpose.
Ofc, those things I can just get off AliExpress too and sometimes I do when I don't mind waiting which is the biggest issue with AliExpress, the waiting
I, and probably millions of others, are shopping where the best price/value is and nothing else because we can't afford not to. I wouldn't mind shopping locally owned and paying the premium...if I could afford it. Stop pushing for expensive alternatives people can't afford and push for regulations instead.
Ya simple solution: don't buy no-name chinesium crap regardless of the storefront and you won't be disappointed
Cancelled two weeks ago, and while it's too early for me to have a fully informed opinion, so far I've noticed that if you just hold items in your cart until you reach some kind of threshold (and I admittedly don't know what that is) you can get free shipping anyway.
It's almost like I was paying all that money just so I could one off order anything on a whim. I'm an adult, I can exercise impulse control and stick it to Amazon in some small way by doing it. Win/Win.
That's what I do. And by the time I have enough stuff built up for free shipping, I realize I don't need most of it anyway.
Yeah, they have order minimums for some of their shipping options anyway. $25 for same day in my area, but once my membership lapses I bet I still end up getting shit in around the same time
Ssst… don’t tell or they will start to make delivery times longer.
Start? They've already been doing that for at least a couple of years now.
Well, the 2-Day shipping guarantee was fucking destroyed through pandemic/online shopping & stimmy checks. We just hit crazy peaks of rampant consumerism & the guarantee couldn't easily be honored.
I meant without Prime. Most of the time, my orders take 4-6 days to even ship anymore. I'll occasionally sign up for a month of Prime when they offer it for free again, and it's back to normal for that month.
But yeah, there isn't free 2-day shipping anymore, just "free Prime shipping," which is slower than 2-day and faster than non-Prime.
When I lived in NYC I could not even understand the appeal of Prime. Now that I live in the burbs I can’t live without it. I hate that I keep throwing money at Bezos but abusing their return policy is my little solace.
As somebody who lives on an island, I don’t understand the appeal of Amazon Prime. It’s a bogus product - if you live outside the mainland USA, you still get slower shipping speeds (usually like 1 week with Prime vs 2 weeks without it). It’s literally just an instant gratification thing - if I need something now, I’d just go out and buy it from a store instead of ordering it through Amazon or any online retailer.
Speaking from my experience in Australia, Prime is quite good for ad-hoc ordering.
For AUD6.99 a month I can order something that will usually turn up tomorrow morning, meaning that if I need a light bulb or a dishcloth or weed killer it's just a 30 second search with the app on my phone and I can get on with my day.
Compare that to:
eBay - free shipping, a week or so, "express" , 3 days and AUD12-18 per purchase.
Small online retailers - generally no free shipping, usually an Australia Post option at AUD12 or so that takes about 4-5 days, "express" via various couriers that takes that to 2-3 days for AUD18-30.
Large retailers - a week or more for delivery, AUD10-40 depending on size.
Me going down the shops and buying it myself - AUD60/hour labour and consumables, 30 minutes to an hour depending on what I'm buying and where from, AUD30-60.
Say what you want about their treatment of workers, from a consumer point of view Amazon's warehousing and delivery logistics are pretty effective.
Added edit: I don't live in a "rural" area (of which there are plenty in Australia), but I've sent stuff there using Prime and even then it's only an extra day or two on top.
Oh and there's Prime Video, and I've watched a few shows on it but it's not something that I particularly need or desire.
And sure , I could do without Prime. Just like I could do without brunch at a cafe once a week, or I could do without Netflix. But it provides a service that is generally cheaper and more convenient than the other options I have so..... I'll just continue to use it until it doesn't.
Similar to the person who commented below. I live in a very rural area so it would be 10 bucks in gas just to drive to the closest Target to buy a pack of pens that I need for work the next day. And I know that I could just swing by on my way home from work and pick them up, but then it becomes a time thing. I mean my entire plan is to ditch Amazon prime after my current subscription expires. But man, there are some interesting things that have just become normalized with the convenience of getting things mailed to me that I'm totally going to miss. But fuck bezos
the convenience of getting things mailed to me
You can still get things mailed to you, with free shipping. Just order $35 of stuff at a time.
It just takes some forethought, some planning, and yeah maybe some "going without" for just a few days. But it can be done! Fuck Bezos.
Where I live it’s either Target or Amazon Prime. And give how crappy the Target selection is there’s no real choice.
One of the final nails in the coffin for me was when I tried to specify the delivery date to a day I would actually be in, and they completely ignored the instruction and delivered immediately. Like, I pay for that option, and you're not delivering the service.
I've also been getting free trials for Prime every so often, so I still get the benefits when I might need them (eg before Christmas). They did make it very hard to cancel, though, half the links didn't work and the instructions were out of date and didn't match the pages.
I don't even have an Amazon account anymore. If I need something, I just give the money to a friend and have them order it for me. Definitely saves me money because I don't want to go through the hassle of doing that for most things.
If I need something, I just give the money to a friend and have them order it for me.
This is awesome. Amazon is as unscrupulous as a drug dealer, so you need a "connection" to deal with Amazon.
Lol, i never thought of them as a dealer, but i like it
Some of us have been living without an Amazon account since 2007 and we're still alive. Go figure.
I barely manage, but I suvive.
I cancelled Prime late last year, and haven't really missed it, either.
Leaving Prime also meant the end of free Amazon Prime Video (you can still rent or buy many movies without it), but I’ve been able to bear it.
While I had Prime, I think there was 1, maybe 2 instances where I wanted to watch something and it was actually included with Prime. Every other time, Amazon Video had the movie, but they wanted an additional fee to watch it, so this was absolutely no loss.
One thing to note: Every time I check out on Amazon, now, they offer me a reduced price 1-week "trial" of Prime, to get the expedited shipping, for like... $5 or so? If you cancel yours, and also see this offer: You can take the offer, submit your order (and get the free 2 day shipping), then once you get the shipping confirmation, go in and cancel the Prime subscription. Since you've had it for only a few hours, Amazon actually refunds the price you paid. In effect, you get the shipping benefits for free. We'll see if they close this loophole, but for now, it works.
If you decline a few times they'll eventually offer you an entire month of Prime for free. I've thus never paid for Prime, ever.
No gain or loss there. Amazon's logistics are so grabasstic now that delivery lead times are about the same with or without Prime. So I don't particularly care.
I only buy commodity bullshit on Amazon anymore, and sometimes not even then. If they have it for a good price I might get a pack of crimp connectors or a roll of 3D printer filament or nuts and bolts or something. Otherwise it's just wall-to-wall Chinese word salad non-brand knockoff shit on there anymore. You may as well just shop on AliExpress since at least they're honest about hawking tat from Shenzen and it's cheaper to boot.
