Amazon Prime - yay or nay

[Lex Concord]

Help me out here guys. I mentioned what was being discussed here, with my wife (subscribing to household items, etc.) and she had me look up some things. Almost every one of the things we looked up (a few grocery items, laundry stuff, and paper products) she said seemed higher than what she's paying. What sorts of things are you all buying that's cheaper than Sam's Club and Walmart?

If you're looking at Bounty and Gain, the prices may not be any better. If you have allergies in the family, and need to buy brands like Seventh Generation, etc., you'll see the savings over other places where those things are available. Same with food. Campbell's soup, maybe not so much; Wolfgang Puck's organic soups, however, big difference, especially w/ Subscribe and Save.

Also, outside of the grocery zone, you have things that Walmart and Sam's Club (I also frequent both) don't carry. I've never seen Maxpedition, CRKT, Magpul, Fenix, etc. at either.

Also, the supplement selection on Amazon is incredible. It's rare I find a better deal on the kinds we need.

If you've checked the prices on the things you buy, and can't find the benefit, it may not be that great for you. As with anything, it's not a fit for everyone.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Razor cartridges for one. And I don't want to hear from anyone about Dollar Shave Club; their razors new are about like 3 week old Gilette.

It's a 30 minute drive for me to a Super Walmart, and it's right at an hour to Sam's. Unless I'm buying a lot, most places beat that drive.

I count time saved as well. If you spend an hour to save $4, you are working for less than minimum wage.

If you're looking at Bounty and Gain, the prices may not be any better. If you have allergies in the family, and need to buy brands like Seventh Generation, etc., you'll see the savings over other places where those things are available. Same with food. Campbell's soup, maybe not so much; Wolfgang Puck's organic soups, however, big difference, especially w/ Subscribe and Save.

Also, outside of the grocery zone, you have things that Walmart and Sam's Club (I also frequent both) don't carry. I've never seen Maxpedition, CRKT, Magpul, Fenix, etc. at either.

Also, the supplement selection on Amazon is incredible. It's rare I find a better deal on the kinds we need.

If you've checked the prices on the things you buy, and can't find the benefit, it may not be that great for you. As with anything, it's not a fit for everyone.

Thanks guys. Yeah, Sam's Club is right on her way home and she makes a stop at Walmart about 8-9 days a week so, we're not traveling so much out of our (her) way.

We are pretty well "steak and potato" kind of plain, in a number of respects. Speciality this and name brand that doesn't do much for us. But I told her to check around, when SHE has time to look, just to see if there's an opportunity we should be exploiting.

 

[bwframe]

Thanks guys. Yeah, Sam's Club is right on her way home and she makes a stop at Walmart about 8-9 days a week so, we're not traveling so much out of our (her) way.

We are pretty well "steak and potato" kind of plain, in a number of respects. Speciality this and name brand that doesn't do much for us. But I told her to check around, when SHE has time to look, just to see if there's an opportunity we should be exploiting.

Years ago, I was in the restaurant biz. We had the sharpest money people in the world researching who our (high volume) suppliers would be. The best in the business. They found us phenomenal meat, dry goods and canned product pricing. The same supplier brought 50 or 80# bags of sugar with the orders. Per pound, the sugar pricing could always be beat at the grocery store.

I do most of my grocery stuff from Kroger, saving the specialty and bulk item shopping for an Amazon price check. A lot of Amazon's food and sundry pricing varies with the market. Some things are actually quite high priced. Not unlike the grocery or Wally World though, there are times when it pays to pay more for the convenience. We've all met people who would drive miles out of the way to save 10 cents a gallon on gas?

Back before Amazon gave in to the Indiana sales tax Nazi's, the Prime membership was not even a question. A couple or three high dollar purchases justified the Prime membership quick. They are still very competitive on high dollar stuff, but you have to remember to calculate in the extra 7 bucks per hundred you spend for taxation without representation.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Years ago, I was in the restaurant biz. We had the sharpest money people in the world researching who our (high volume) suppliers would be. The best in the business. They found us phenomenal meat, dry goods and canned product pricing. The same supplier brought 50 or 80# bags of sugar with the orders. Per pound, the sugar pricing could always be beat at the grocery store.

I do most of my grocery stuff from Kroger, saving the specialty and bulk item shopping for an Amazon price check. A lot of Amazon's food and sundry pricing varies with the market. Some things are actually quite high priced. Not unlike the grocery or Wally World though, there are times when it pays to pay more for the convenience. We've all met people who would drive miles out of the way to save 10 cents a gallon on gas?

Back before Amazon gave in to the Indiana sales tax Nazi's, the Prime membership was not even a question. A couple or three high dollar purchases justified the Prime membership quick. They are still very competitive on high dollar stuff, but you have to remember to calculate the 7 bucks per hundred you spend.

What sorts of bulk items do you find Amazon cheaper on? Yeah my wife knows what sorts of things Walmart is cheaper on and which the Bedford version of Kroger is cheaper on. She's got it down to a science.

 

[bwframe]

What sorts of bulk items do you find Amazon cheaper on? Yeah my wife knows what sorts of things Walmart is cheaper on and which the Bedford version of Kroger is cheaper on. She's got it down to a science.

This is stuff I routinely buy from Amazon. It may or may not be beat local pricing, but this stuff is bought once, maybe twice, a year. Not worth the running down in the stores, (even if they had some of highly rated unique brands.) The nice option is sitting in your jammies and drinking beer while price checking.

Pink salt

Cocoa

Powdered milk

Prorasso

Body wash

Pellets

Bike tires

 

[chipbennett]

Thanks guys. Yeah, Sam's Club is right on her way home and she makes a stop at Walmart about 8-9 days a week so, we're not traveling so much out of our (her) way.

We are pretty well "steak and potato" kind of plain, in a number of respects. Speciality this and name brand that doesn't do much for us. But I told her to check around, when SHE has time to look, just to see if there's an opportunity we should be exploiting.

Sam's Club requires a membership, and there's not one convenient to us anyway. And I hate going to WalMart. The time/headache savings anytime I can avoid going to WalMart are significant.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Sam's Club requires a membership, and there's not one convenient to us anyway. And I hate going to WalMart. The time/headache savings anytime I can avoid going to WalMart are significant.

I hear you and if it were up to me doing the shopping, I might well have that same attitude. But fortunately, my wife has the patience of a saint and will put up with that crap.

 

[gregkl]

Okay, so I bought a membership last night. They are running a discount so I bit. Not sure how it all works, but it's worth it just for the music if I can actually build a library and listen at home, in my car and on my phone offline.

Any of you who know how it all works, please share.

My wife wants to know if she can download the free books to her nook. My guess is no, since Amazon has the Kindle, but maybe?

 

[chipbennett]

Okay, so I bought a membership last night. They are running a discount so I bit. Not sure how it all works, but it's worth it just for the music if I can actually build a library and listen at home, in my car and on my phone offline.

Any of you who know how it all works, please share.

My wife wants to know if she can download the free books to her nook. My guess is no, since Amazon has the Kindle, but maybe?

Is there a Kindle App for the Nook? Something you can add by rooting it, perhaps?

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Amazon is hiking the price to $119 per year.

Honestly, it could be $500 per year and we'd still benefit from the savings on shipping. We're getting deliveries nearly every few days.

 

[KLB]

Do you use any of the other included services?

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Do you use any of the other included services?

I'll use the Prime video streaming for some shows and movies they have hosted (free, not paid).

This year I did use it for some Amazon Exclusive anime (some ****ing excellent anime, I might add). If Amazon hadn't had them, I'd have just torrented them.

Never really bothered with the music side of Amazon. Only recently dabbling with my Kindle Paperwhite, but I'm not using my Amazon account with it. Love the Paperwhite though... super cool.

We have the prime rewards visa card, it just made sense for how much we order stuff... get 5% cash back on all purchases.

Since Prime is linked to Twitch Prime... I've gotten a couple free items in some games I play... though I want nothing to do with Twitch itself. Just having Prime gives you Twitch Prime though.

 

[bwframe]

Prime Photos sends me a txt every day "memories from 2014, 2010, 2017, etc." A picture reminder of the same date in whatever year I took and auto uploaded the pic to Prime Photos.

 

[femurphy77]

Haven't decided if the extra $20 is going to kill Prime for us or not. About the only thing we're getting from it is shipping. I started out with Prime on a student discount price and just kept renewing when that deal ended. We don't use any of the streaming services because we don't have the internet access to support it.

 

[CampingJosh]

View attachment 66278

Yeah, I get some use from Prime. That total is 0.5% of eligible purchases, which means that I've spent over $11,000 on Amazon in the last four years. Oh, and my wife has a separate account, but she never remembers to use Smile. One Prime fee for the both of us.

We also stream some video, but that's the only other part we use. It's worth it to me just for shipping.

 

[Expat]

I got on it 2 years ago when they offered it to me for like half price. They renewed me this year without asking, but we stayed on it. Not sure I will do it for next year. We have watched a couple of shows on the TV but not that much. I always ordered enough at a time to get free shipping most of the time anyway.

 

[RugerRog]

I'm on the fence. We have Prime, and have renewed for a second year. But we are not purchasing or need as much from Amazon as the previous 12 months....we watched a few shows and I occasionally stream music. I like Netflix better especially the interface. The prime video interface isnt very good imho, compared to Netflix. So I'm not sure we are getting any value this year from it. The 2 day shipping is nice and that pays for it self if you have to make several purchases and need it quickly.

Also, I read they are raising the prime rates to $120 a year. I guess they gotta make up for the 250 million they spent on Lord of the Rings rights to make a series. I will keep it through the end of the year and probably cancel after that.

 

[jkaetz]

It is relatively simple math, get the Chase Amazon Rewards card that will give you 5% cash on all Amazon purchases. If you spend over ~$2400/year on Amazon purchases with the card it will make the $120 a wash. If you spend more than that you only gain from there.

As for Prime itself you really do get a lot for the $$. More than most people utilize.