Amazon Prime is worth it

Questions on how we spend our money and our time - consumer goods and services, home and vehicle, leisure and recreational activities
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TomatoTomahto
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by TomatoTomahto »

Alex Frakt wrote:I use Prime for the free shipping. It really has changed how I shop. If I need something other than groceries, I try to get it online. No added costs for driving to the store, no added costs from impulse buys at said store, and no buying stuff I really don't need to get to the $25 minimum order for free shipping.
Plus, for us in NJ and only for the time being, no sales tax.
I make my kids check Amazon before I'll drive them to a store for things. It has changed our lives in additional ways, for example, my son and I use Sonicare toothbrushes; rather than trusting him to replace the head when necessary, a package of new heads comes periodically (every 3 months IIRC), ditto his vitamins, etc.
I get the FI part but not the RE part of FIRE.
sscritic
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by sscritic »

bicker wrote:I meant free TWO DAY shipping. Sorry for the confusion.
My mistake. I didn't read carefully. Two day shipping vs four or six day shipping never really mattered to me. I could just pretend I ordered two days later than I actually did. :)
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bUU
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by bUU »

It is interesting to realize just how much we rely on that two-day shipping, here, especially since we found Amazon.com to be the best place for certain repeated purchases, like coffee.
Alex Frakt
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by Alex Frakt »

sscritic wrote:
bicker wrote:Free two-day shipping. $80 a year? Fantastic value, given how much we buy from Amazon.com.
I have never paid for shipping from Amazon, and I never paid them $80 a year. I can't find anywhere on their website where they require you to pay $80 a year for free shipping. I like my "free" shipping to be free, not to cost $80. But then, free to me might not mean the same as free to you.
OK, it's not free. But in my mind, it's also not free shipping if you have to pad out your order to meet a minimum purchase amount.

I just checked and I've placed 57 orders at Amazon this year. 35 of them were under $25. The smallest amount was $3.44 for a bicycle tire patch kit. Based on how I shop at other sites that offer free shipping only with a minimum order, I'm certain I would have spent more than $80 buying stuff I didn't need to "save" on shipping. And although it's hard to put a value on the included upgrade to 2-day shipping (and $3.99 for overnight), it's more than nominal in my case because I have used this for last minute items, saving me a trip to the store. A round trip to the nearest Toys-R-Us, for example, costs me $4 in gas.
sscritic
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by sscritic »

Alex Frakt wrote: I just checked and I've placed 57 orders at Amazon this year. 35 of them were under $25. The smallest amount was $3.44 for a bicycle tire patch kit. Based on how I shop at other sites that offer free shipping only with a minimum order, I'm certain I would have spent more than $80 buying stuff I didn't need to "save" on shipping. And although it's hard to put a value on the included upgrade to 2-day shipping (and $3.99 for overnight), it's more than nominal in my case because I have used this for last minute items, saving me a trip to the store. A round trip to the nearest Toys-R-Us, for example, costs me $4 in gas.
I live 3 minutes from a WalMart, so I would buy a tire patch kit there in 30 minutes and not wait two days to fix my tire (if I had a bike). For your use, it may make sense. I don't buy that much stuff online, and I don't always get free shipping, but I take the shipping costs into account when I make my purchase decision.
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FrugalInvestor
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by FrugalInvestor »

There was a time when I knew I would be placing a substantial number of orders with Amazon, so I signed up for a one month free trial of Prime and got all my orders shipped quickly and then cancelled it. It was a nice bonus but not worth it to me to pay extra.

I generally have no trouble qualifying for free shipping. If there are items I am looking for that I don't need right away I just move them to "save for later" and then add them on to reach the $25 free shipping level when I need something else. I seldom if ever require 2-day shipping and free ship orders typically arrive in 3 to 5 days, plenty quick for me.

I don't get books or movies from Amazon. We use the one-at-a-time $5 per month Netflix DVD by mail option for movies. That coupled with a DVD for TV shows provides more than enough entertainment for our needs.
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kenyan
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by kenyan »

bicker wrote:Free two-day shipping. $80 a year? Fantastic value, given how much we buy from Amazon.com.

Oh, they offer movies too? I didn't notice. (Seriously, I did, but we need closed captions and online we just don't get them, so it is like they don't have movies, to us.)
FYI, Amazon has started rolling in closed captioning on its streaming content (started a couple of months ago). Something to look out for if you get interested.
Retirement investing is a marathon.
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bUU
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by bUU »

Yup, we've been keeping a close eye. Unfortunately, it is almost like stars must align... both the content needs to support it, and the specific device you're using must support it - Amazon.com did not ensure that all their client software was updated to support it. At this point, they're making hearing impaired families gather around the computer to watch programming.

Perhaps they think all hearing impaired people are single. :oops:

:)
Default User BR
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by Default User BR »

bicker wrote:I meant free TWO DAY shipping. Sorry for the confusion.
Most of the time, I don't care whether the shipping take two days or five.


Brian
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bUU
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by bUU »

A quick review of my purchases show that it made a difference for enough of the orders to more than justify the cost.
Default User BR
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by Default User BR »

bicker wrote:A quick review of my purchases show that it made a difference for enough of the orders to more than justify the cost.
In what way?


Brian
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bUU
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by bUU »

In the way it matters. Thanks. Your priorities may be different.
ladders11
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by ladders11 »

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Last edited by ladders11 on Sat Jan 21, 2023 1:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Sidney
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by Sidney »

TomatoTomahto wrote:Plus, for us in NJ and only for the time being, no sales tax.
Doesn't NJ have a use tax?
I always wanted to be a procrastinator.
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Imperabo
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by Imperabo »

I'll keep Amazon Prime until 2014, when the absurd tax-free gravy train ends and Amazon has to start collecting sales tax in my state. Then their prices will go up by 7.725% and I'll start buying more locally.
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RustyShackleford
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by RustyShackleford »

NAVigator wrote:I am not at all interested in TV shows ....
You're missing a lot. TV has gotten a LOT better since you had a TV (I'm referring mostly to Cable TV, not network, which, with a VERY few exceptions, has gotten even more atrocious). I would put shows like "The Wire", "The Sopranos", and "Deadwood" up against ANY movie; they ARE movies - "long form" movies. And there are a host of other cable TV shows, that, while not equalling this "holy trinity" (which remain in a class by themselves, IMHO), are still well worth watching.
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specabecca
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by specabecca »

Sidney wrote:I have never waited more than three days for anything in stock that is shipped with the "free shipping for over $XX" -- it probably has to do with how close the major distribution center is. The only faster shipping I've ever experienced was Newegg - ordered at 4:00 one afternoon and delivered next day.

I think a lot of the distribution centers are in NJ and DE which are not far from where we live.
On this note, I've bought lots through Amazon's free shipping and gotten packages anywhere from next day to 11 days later. Generally, the shipping time is about 5 business days for me (FL res).
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NAVigator
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by NAVigator »

RustyShackleford wrote:
NAVigator wrote:I am not at all interested in TV shows ....
You're missing a lot. TV has gotten a LOT better since you had a TV (I'm referring mostly to Cable TV, not network, which, with a VERY few exceptions, has gotten even more atrocious). I would put shows like "The Wire", "The Sopranos", and "Deadwood" up against ANY movie; they ARE movies - "long form" movies. And there are a host of other cable TV shows, that, while not equalling this "holy trinity" (which remain in a class by themselves, IMHO), are still well worth watching.
I may be missing things. I have learned over the past 20 years how to make my time important to me and I strive to use it wisely. Television offers only what someone else deems important and at the pace it can deliver it. I prefer my choices of what to investigate, my pace of delivery, and my depth of study. So Amazon Prime works for me, for documentaries mostly. Personal preference prevails because it is in choosing our path that we reach our destination.

Jerry
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bUU
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by bUU »

Personal preference prevails
This is critical. Though, even given that, the decision is not always as simple as you seem to see it. You put some stock in "your pace of delivery" but your chosen method doesn't necessarily conform to any specific pace of delivery (i.e., for many people, the methods you use may have too slow of a pace of delivery). However, more importantly, cable + TiVo results in the broadest range of paces of delivery, from the fastest available to slow as you'd like. That's not to say that you're making the wrong choice for yourself - rather, only that there are considerations that you perhaps haven't investigated that actually would serve your needs better, assuming you cared about having your needs served better (which, itself, is not necessary - sometimes good enough is good enough - we could probably make an additional 0.05% on our emergency fund by switching our account to Ally Bank right now, but we're not going to do that because we want to expend our efforts on other things right now that perhaps have more importance to us).

One thing you said caught my attention though... you said, "I have learned over the past 20 years how to make my time important to me." I have learned to make my time less important to me. Making my time more important to me sounds like it would make life more stressful. I work a bit to try to adjust my demeanor so that delays, waiting and other disruptions to my time don't upset me. Again, "personal preference prevails."
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RustyShackleford
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by RustyShackleford »

NAVigator wrote:I may be missing things. ... Television offers only what someone else deems important and at the pace it can deliver it. I prefer my choices of what to investigate, my pace of delivery, and my depth of study.
Maybe I wasn't clear. I don't have cable. I watch these "long-form movies" by getting DVDs from Netflix, or by streaming them. EXACTLY the same way I watch movies - except I typically don't watch the whole thing at once.

As far as mostly watching documentaries, your choice of course. But I think many wise people have said that there can be as much or more truth in fiction as in non-fiction. Mostly talking about books, but I think the point applies to movies too, be they long-form or conventional.
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JupiterJones
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Re: Amazon Prime is worth it

Post by JupiterJones »

NAVigator wrote: So Amazon Prime works for me, for documentaries mostly.
Not to belabor the point, but it's worth noting that the past 20 years of TV have brought us some pretty fantastic documentaries, such as the various Ken Burns productions.

Not to mention historical non-fiction falling outside the documentary form, such as the "From the Earth to the Moon" miniseries and the "John Adams" miniseries, both of which are absolutely brilliant, IMHO.

JJ
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