Amazon Prime membership increasing to $140

[jeromedawg]

Anyone here currently a Prime member and planning to renew despite the increase?

"Oh boy, I'm going to have to order a bunch of crap off Amazon to make this worth it..." --most Amazon Prime members currently

[NotJen]

I've never been a paying Prime member.  I don't shop very much to begin with, and hate trying to find what I want on Amazon.  But it's a necessary evil at times if they have the best price for something - I just wait until I have enough in my cart to get free shipping.

They usually offer me a month free every year or so.  I'm waiting a few weeks to cash in this year's free month so that I can watch the new season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

[therethere]

I use it primarily for the unlimited photo storage, include RAW photos. The Prime shipping was a bonus that I only use maybe once or twice a month. They do have me really spoiled with easy returns though. I'll probably look around to ensure its still the most appropriate for our photo storage. But I think we'll end up paying the increase.

[HPstache]

This might be the last straw for me

[Rural]

I hadn't heard. That really sucks. I'll have to think about it. That's our only streaming service and the only way to get a whole lot of things without driving up to 100 miles each way, so maybe. Will there still be free shipping over a certain purchase amount?

[Captain FIRE]

We received it as a baby shower gift and paid for it the next year, but I couldn’t stomach the increase to $119 as it was. I use the free month they offer me sometimes, but otherwise wait till I have enough in my cart for free shipping. I definitely won’t be coming back at $139.

[StarBright]

We've used it for streaming TV and music - but try not to order retail because of their labor issues.

At dinner we just decided this is a great reason to cancel and do the right thing (for us) that we've been avoiding.

[Sibley]

Of course they are, haven't you heard, Amazon is broke and going out of business. /s

I don't have Prime. My sister does. If she wants to keep it, its her money.

[sailinlight]

I use it primarily for the unlimited photo storage, include RAW photos. The Prime shipping was a bonus that I only use maybe once or twice a month. They do have me really spoiled with easy returns though. I'll probably look around to ensure its still the most appropriate for our photo storage. But I think we'll end up paying the increase.

Wow I pay for Prime and I didn't know they let you store unlimited RAW photos. That's kind of weird though, as I assume they have access to view them. I use AWS glacial storage to store many terabytes of my computer backups (mostly photos in RAW format) and it costs about $2 a month. There's also a free Windows program you can download to easily upload and download your files to it.

[pasadenafr]

I'm lucky that my subscription will renew right before the price increase (March 25th for existing customers) so I get 1 more year at $119.

I order quite a bit at Amazon and use the Prime credit card. The cashback on the card normally pays for the subscription. I also used to use quite a bit of Prime Video but I haven't watched TV much this past year, and I use my sister's Netflix account.

So well, that's a question for next year I guess.

[PDXTabs]

I order a lot of stuff off of Amazon instead of going to any local chain stores and have it delivered on my "prime day." I'll probably continue to pay.

[pdxvandal]

Damn, that's not awesome. I could see my family taking an extended break from Prime and seeing how much we really miss it. I've ordered maybe one thing off Amazon in the last 2 months. And the Prime Video is mostly worthless if you have Netflix or Disney+.

[BikeFanatic]

I canceled my mothers prime and was surprised that Alexa still works without it. I may be able to play
Music but not particular songs. I can test that out. I am NOT paying 139 for prime, that’s ridiculous. I don’t like shopping on Amazon and the excessive packaging drives me crazy, the labor practices, and just hate the gorging of us with price of prime. I can watch Netflix or someone else Hulu.

[jrhampt]

Hmm, I didn't know about the photo storage either.  I use it for streaming and the free kindle books I get every month, plus the fast, free shipping.  We will probably renew.

[chemistk]

If I can remember to do so, we'll be cancelling next year. Our re-up already hit so we got the $120 for a final year.

I've noticed that our orders from Amazon have dropped pretty substantially, to the point now where we're just buying odds and ends that you can't get in a local store (screen protectors for our 3 year old phones, for example). When we do order something, it's on our Prime day or later.

We never watch anything on Prime Video. I loathe the interface and do what i can to stay away from it. Same with Music.

We don't own (and probably never will) own a single Alexa device. We have one surviving Kindle tablet that will surely be mercilessly killed by our kids, and then we can get a cheap Android tablet if needed.

Honestly, the only true benefit we use is the photo storage, but I'd rather pay a couple bucks a month to keep that going. We can still buy from Amazon with longer shipping, and that will be just fine for us. Prime used to have much better benefits back when we first started subscribing - anyone remember/use Amazon Underground? There was a huge library of normally paid Android apps that Amazon offered (including any DLC and in-app purchases) for free. I was sad to see that go, as well as Amazon's very good quality Fire HDX tablet line.

[moustachebar]

Wow I pay for Prime and I didn't know they let you store uI use AWS glacial storage to store many terabytes of my computer backups (mostly photos in RAW format) and it costs about $2 a month. There's also a free Windows program you can download to easily upload and download your files to it.

Wow. Are you able to share any info/ resources on how to get started with this? Consumer cloud product pricing has generally led me to believe that cloud backups are out of reach due to cost. But it would be nice to have off site backup.

[mizzourah2006]

I've never had it. If you order over like $25 of stuff shipping is free anyway and in my experience they've gotten so used to shipping 2 day delivery they are darn close to 2 days most times even without prime.

[Sugaree]

It's partially a math question and partially a value question.  According to my order report, I placed 47 orders in 2021.  Most of them were in Oct-Dec and of those there were several that I specifically broke up into separate orders in order to get extra digital credits (I use those to buy myself a book every year after xmas...I got Quit Like a Millionaire this year).  Of those 47, there were 21 that were under $25 total and I would have had to pay for shipping without Prime.  Assuming shipping costs $5 per shipment that is $105*.  So now the question becomes "Are all of the other Prime benefits worth $35-$75/year?"  We're fairly entrenched in the Amazon ecosystem at this point.  Echo devices, Fire TVs, etc.  My husband also really likes several of the Prime video shows.   Because of that we'll probably bite the bullet and stay another year.  But we'll be taking a hard look at it next year depending on what the numbers say.



*Yes, I'm aware that those shipments that I intentionally split up would probably qualify for free shipping without Prime if I combined them.  Using that metric, I placed orders on 35 separate days and there were 13 days where I ordered less than $25 so my shipping costs would have been $65 instead of $105.  That makes a difference. 

[dblaace]

When Prime went from $79 to $99 I canceled it. Shortly after that I started getting messages about Prime Student when checking out and I had to click no I don't want to save with free shipping. Finally I said screw it and clicked yes and paid $59 for Prime Student.

After 4 years I guess they decided I graduated and said I had to renew at the normal rate so I canceled it again. Next time I checked out they offered me Prime Student again. So I am back to $59 again...

[Morning Glory]

I've never had it. If you order over like $25 of stuff shipping is free anyway and in my experience they've gotten so used to shipping 2 day delivery they are darn close to 2 days most times even without prime.

Same here. I don't order that much so it's cheaper for me to occasionally buy a filler item to get the free shipping.

[dividendman]

My bank reimburses my prime membership (along with other stuff like a costco membership, up to $400/yr) for having a certain amount of assets there... it's a pretty good yearly perk (check out Citibank subscription rebate benefits).

[cool7hand]

Has anyone in two-person FIRE households had success agreeing to split a Prime Membership with family or friends to defray the cost? If so, how'd you work it?

[Samuel]

An extra $1.66 a month is not a deal breaker for me. Between the streaming, photo storage, shipping (with super easy returns), and 5% back both at Amazon and Whole Foods (with Prime credit card) it's all still well worth $11.58 a month.

Granted, I live a 4 minute walk from a Whole Foods and shop there regularly for perishables between bigger stock up grocery trips. They also take returns there now without even having to box the stuff up.

[NotJen]

An extra $1.66 a month is not a deal breaker for me. Between the streaming, photo storage, shipping (with super easy returns), and 5% back both at Amazon and Whole Foods (with Prime credit card) it's all still well worth $11.58 a month.

Granted, I live a 4 minute walk from a Whole Foods and shop there regularly for perishables between bigger stock up grocery trips. They also take returns there now without even having to box the stuff up.

Are returns different for Prime members?  I get very easy returns without being a member - with several options for free drop-off locations without having to package anything up.

You get 3% CB at Amazon and Whole Foods with the Amazon credit card if you aren't a prime member (and in the past, it has immediately "converted" to the 5% cash back when on the free trial month).

[GuitarStv]

Amazon prime doesn't seem to have any benefits to me.  If we need something from Amazon, we just wait until we need enough stuff in an order to get free shipping.  I can tolerate waiting three days for delivery instead of 1.

[Captain FIRE]

Amazon prime doesn't seem to have any benefits to me.  If we need something from Amazon, we just wait until we need enough stuff in an order to get free shipping.  I can tolerate waiting three days for delivery instead of 1.

Agree on being able to wait, but unlike y'all it really does take a week or two for my items to arrive, and I live in a large metro area.  Sometimes they come faster but it's definitely not an average of 3 days.

[GuitarStv]

Amazon prime doesn't seem to have any benefits to me.  If we need something from Amazon, we just wait until we need enough stuff in an order to get free shipping.  I can tolerate waiting three days for delivery instead of 1.

Agree on being able to wait, but unlike y'all it really does take a week or two for my items to arrive, and I live in a large metro area.  Sometimes they come faster but it's definitely not an average of 3 days.

I grew up in an isolated Northern community with no real stores to speak of.  We'd order our clothes from the Sears catalogue in the fall and get it 4-5 months later.  Anything under 3 months still feels pretty quick for delivery to me.

[CoffeeR]

Wow I pay for Prime and I didn't know they let you store uI use AWS glacial storage to store many terabytes of my computer backups (mostly photos in RAW format) and it costs about $2 a month. There's also a free Windows program you can download to easily upload and download your files to it.

Wow. Are you able to share any info/ resources on how to get started with this? Consumer cloud product pricing has generally led me to believe that cloud backups are out of reach due to cost. But it would be nice to have off site backup.

AWS Glacial storage has some drawbacks. In general I find BackBlaze cloud storage cheaper the AWS S3, but maybe Amazon has adjusted their prices to be more competitive...

[Rosy]

My CU offered a perk last year - free annual Prime membership. Instant reimbursement.
Between the digital credits, free or reduced prime book deals, the free shipping and some extra cash rewards throughout the year (mostly $1, $3, $5 cash) and near $120 (total) purchase discounts on GCs and random items - it was an awesome deal.

The year before I got 90-days free and similar cash rewards and discounts and scored on Prime Day.
The doctorofcredit site keeps me informed whenever there are discounts on GCs or other deals and rewards to be had - that alone saved us plenty over time.

I never expected it to be as good a bargain as it turned out to be, especially since except for books, we don't buy all that much. I did not even know I could borrow books for free with my Prime Account until a few months ago.
At X-mas time I order from the young ones Amazon wishlist wondering what the hell some of the items are and I scored on Cyber Monday with a laptop purchase. I like the free Prime Video but we have Netflix already.

For now, it continues to be a good deal.

[pasadenafr]

For those of you renewing (or getting for the first time) after the increase, you can still buy a "Year of Prime" as a gift to yourself at the current price (send it to whatever email address you're using at Amazon). Then remove auto-renew on your current subs, and when it expires, use the gifted one.

I'm guessing this will increase on 02/28, like the price for new members.

[AlanStache]

Think I might be looking to not renew, never watch the prime video (The Grand Tour was mostly meh).  If I can get free delivery with just waiting to be over the $ min that is probably easy enough.  Never look to use the image storage option, dont have that many pictures.  Dont have there CC or get the membership refunded.   

Maybe will check out the videos one last time but nothing ever grabbed me before, or it seemed like all the good stuff had an extra fee on top of prime membership. 

[jnw]

Prime is totally worth it to me. Saves me time going to department stores.  i can buy items used on amazon as well.  it also saves auto fuel, wear and tear on vehicle.  it also reduces the chance id be in an auto accident.  I usually get better quality items at better prices than I would from a local dept store.  I always hate having to drive to store, find a parking space, hunt through store to find item..wait in line forever.  or worse get there and the item you need is out of stock.

I also use my prime sub for streaming videos.. they offer a lot.  also prime video offers cinemax and showtime subs for 99 cents per month at times.  i subscribe then immediately cancel and binge watch shows for 99 cents.

i didnt know about photo storage, gonna start making use of that.

Also, every year or so they offer me a couple free audiobooks to sign up again to audible.  i sign up, get my two books and then immediately cancel.  I recently got two new $25 audio books for free.

[davisgang90]

We are heavy Amazon users, from kindles to Prime Videos (anyone watch the new Reacher series?) to most of our online shopping.

It is well worth the cost to us. I did just purchase a membership at the current price that I will use to get another year at $119 (thanks for that tip!), but it is worth is to us even with the price increase.

[Cranky]

It’s good value for us. We do watch the tv stuff, and the music streaming, and there are lots of freebies in terms of kindle books.

[Paper Chaser]

Are you guys for real??

MMMers: We want to live frugally and avoid excessive consumption in order to live more fulfilling lives and avoid ruining our planet.

Also MMMers: We pay over $100/mo to a mega corp that treats their workers poorly for a service that's sole purpose is to encourage us to consume more crap and have it conveniently delivered to our door from across the planet in planes, ships and inefficient trucks.

"It means I don't have to drive to the store and use fuel"-- You're skipping a trip to the store in a vehicle that probably gets 25+mpg to have things delivered by a truck that's lucky to get 10mpg.

"We pay this fee because they've got lots of free Kindle books or shipping is free"-- Uhh, guys... it's not free if you have to pay over $100/mo for the privilege. If you're buying enough shit that the free shipping justifies the price of Prime then you're buying too much crap that's very likely to end up in a landfill in pretty short order. You can get truly free books, ebooks, movies, etc from your local library.

We've truly lost the plot haven't we?

[NotJen]

"We pay this fee because they've got lots of free Kindle books or shipping is free"-- Uhh, guys... it's not free if you have to pay over $100/mo for the privilege. If you're buying enough shit that the free shipping justifies the price of Prime then you're buying too much crap that's very likely to end up in a landfill in pretty short order. You can get truly free books, ebooks, movies, etc from your local library.

We've truly lost the plot haven't we?

Right?

My library has all the free ebooks and audiobooks I could ever want (also not really free because I pay taxes and donate each year, but still...)

[neo von retorch]

What's confusing to me is anyone saying it's worth it because you shop at Amazon. Um, it's not a membership. It's pre-paying on expedited shipping. I shop there. They ship me stuff. I don't pay the membership!

I never pay for expedited shipping. It's never worth it. The vast majority of free shipping from Amazon and other online retailers is plenty fast.

Also if you think the 5% vs 3% is worth $140 / year, you're suggesting you spend more than $6999.50 / year at Amazon.com. You might want to post a case study of your purchases, and find ways to reduce that spending.

[sonofsven]

Are you guys for real??

MMMers: We want to live frugally and avoid excessive consumption in order to live more fulfilling lives and avoid ruining our planet.

Also MMMers: We pay over $100/mo to a mega corp that treats their workers poorly for a service that's sole purpose is to encourage us to consume more crap and have it conveniently delivered to our door from across the planet in planes, ships and inefficient trucks.

"It means I don't have to drive to the store and use fuel"-- You're skipping a trip to the store in a vehicle that probably gets 25+mpg to have things delivered by a truck that's lucky to get 10mpg.

"We pay this fee because they've got lots of free Kindle books or shipping is free"-- Uhh, guys... it's not free if you have to pay over $100/mo for the privilege. If you're buying enough shit that the free shipping justifies the price of Prime then you're buying too much crap that's very likely to end up in a landfill in pretty short order. You can get truly free books, ebooks, movies, etc from your local library.

We've truly lost the plot haven't we?

It's not over $100/mo it's per year.

[mizzourah2006]

@Paper Chaser

Haha, I had the exact Convo with my wife Friday night about this very thread. I was wondering if the discussion should have been in the anti-mustachian section.

The forum has clearly changed a bit over the years.

[Paper Chaser]

Are you guys for real??

MMMers: We want to live frugally and avoid excessive consumption in order to live more fulfilling lives and avoid ruining our planet.

Also MMMers: We pay over $100/mo to a mega corp that treats their workers poorly for a service that's sole purpose is to encourage us to consume more crap and have it conveniently delivered to our door from across the planet in planes, ships and inefficient trucks.

"It means I don't have to drive to the store and use fuel"-- You're skipping a trip to the store in a vehicle that probably gets 25+mpg to have things delivered by a truck that's lucky to get 10mpg.

"We pay this fee because they've got lots of free Kindle books or shipping is free"-- Uhh, guys... it's not free if you have to pay over $100/mo for the privilege. If you're buying enough shit that the free shipping justifies the price of Prime then you're buying too much crap that's very likely to end up in a landfill in pretty short order. You can get truly free books, ebooks, movies, etc from your local library.

We've truly lost the plot haven't we?

It's not over $100/mo it's per year.

Shows how likely I am to pay for this service I guess. It's never made any sense to me. It's only reason to exist is to normalize consumption by selling convenience.
The price has gone up to $140 if you pay annually, but for the 52% of Prime users that pay monthly, it ends up being $180/yr:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-prime-fee-rise-180-175155725.html

[sonofsven]

Are you guys for real??

MMMers: We want to live frugally and avoid excessive consumption in order to live more fulfilling lives and avoid ruining our planet.

Also MMMers: We pay over $100/mo to a mega corp that treats their workers poorly for a service that's sole purpose is to encourage us to consume more crap and have it conveniently delivered to our door from across the planet in planes, ships and inefficient trucks.

"It means I don't have to drive to the store and use fuel"-- You're skipping a trip to the store in a vehicle that probably gets 25+mpg to have things delivered by a truck that's lucky to get 10mpg.

"We pay this fee because they've got lots of free Kindle books or shipping is free"-- Uhh, guys... it's not free if you have to pay over $100/mo for the privilege. If you're buying enough shit that the free shipping justifies the price of Prime then you're buying too much crap that's very likely to end up in a landfill in pretty short order. You can get truly free books, ebooks, movies, etc from your local library.

We've truly lost the plot haven't we?

It's not over $100/mo it's per year.

Shows how likely I am to pay for this service I guess. It's never made any sense to me. It's only reason to exist is to normalize consumption by selling convenience.
The price has gone up to $140 if you pay annually, but for the 52% of Prime users that pay monthly, it ends up being $180/yr:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-prime-fee-rise-180-175155725.html

Yeah, I'm on the fence about it. It's actually the only subscription service I pay for. I watch some video now and then and I don't order a ton of stuff so I'm sure I could live without it but at ten bucks per month it's been acceptable. 

Good reminder overall to check what you're paying out per month on subscriptions.

[Dicey]

Husband uses it a lot, even has an Amazon CC. He mostly buys stuff to fix things, not piles of shiny shit. We're FI/RE. I'm not gonna die on this hill.

[PMG]

I was gonna call it out but I was finding it interesting to see what people use and find value in.

Is Amazon music unlimited/add free included with prime membership? Or an add on for fee??

——

I am grandfathered into a prime membership my brother pays for as a second household? Something like that. He gets all the prime benefits, I don’t get full benefits, no access to movies or free kindle books (they actually have a fair amount of free content without subscription frees…).  The big benefit that I get is the free two day shipping… ten years ago it was amazing.  I live really rurally so tend to order things that can’t be found locally.  But that has changed dramatically in the past several years, especially since covid. I still get “two day shipping” but things don’t actually ship until 5-7 or more days after I order.  Would I get better shipping if I actually had a paying subscription?! 

Then there is ethics to consider.  I’ve weaned myself mostly off amz, slow shipping helps. Target fills a lot of gaps (only slightly better ethics) good variety, good prices on some our staples, ships quickly, super good return policy and 5% discount via their card. Target has been a godsend during covid when we’ve had to avoid stores due to high risk factors. Our local Walmart just became the first store in town to offer pick up (super rural, remember). So we’re switching some of our shopping there. Questionable ethics, but it cuts out the individual shipping and keeps more resources locally than amz for sure.

For movies and tv we do have a fire stick… which makes it easy to access a ton of free content. We do rotate subscriptions. Right now we have our local pbs and 99c ad-based Hulu.  We also have an Ecco show Alexa device mostly to video call grandma. It’s creepy. We consider selling it, but it is the best sounding music speaker we have and I love it. We did a three month trial of the amz unlimited music and really enjoyed it but don’t find it worth paying for.  They still offer a lot of free/ad based channels.  I tend toward classical and those are ad-lite. We also use it for podcasts, YouTube listening and npr. But if you were my friend I’d tell you to avoid buying it due to the creep factor.

To sum it up, I’ve enjoyed some Amazon prime in the past but I cannot fathom it being worth such a hefty subscription fee when there are so many other options available.

[shuffler]

"It means I don't have to drive to the store and use fuel"-- You're skipping a trip to the store in a vehicle that probably gets 25+mpg to have things delivered by a truck that's lucky to get 10mpg.

This doesn't seem like a solid argument.  The delivery van is already on my suburban street every day.  My car is sitting at my house b/c I don't have a commute any more.  I have to go much further out of my way (a couple miles) to get to the grocery store (or further for other sorts of retail) than the delivery driver has to go out of their way to get to my house.

Also, citation required on the fleet fuel efficiency.  I didn't find the number in the 2 minutes I searched.

I'm not saying Prime is the best thing ever.
I'm saying your argument presents as inaccurate and unsupported.

The moral arguments around business practices and supporting competition are much more convincing, I find.  I suspect it'll be hard to present an efficiency-based argument when Amazon has scale and incentive to improve.

[AlanStache]

The last I heard of any research on if delivery was more efficient than people going out and picking up directly was mixed.  The delivery van is more efficient over all when you consider it is taking 100's of things to people in a moderate sized area but those people are no longer going out shopping and have more free time so maybe they are driving to a friends house instead.  Never mind urban/suburban/rural/etc or if you can pick up the item during some other outing.  So apples to apples is hard, dont know if it is even possible to say if delivery uses less gas or not, but then what is the question: "gas use over all by all people in my area" or "my personal use of gas".  Then amazon is testing out electric delivery vans and what if you own a ICE car... so yeah.  The problem statement is not well defined and any possible answers are hard to generalize. 

I think I have made up my mind to cancel prime and see how it goes. 

[sonofsven]

I was gonna call it out but I was finding it interesting to see what people use and find value in.

Is Amazon music unlimited/add free included with prime membership? Or an add on for fee??

——

I am grandfathered into a prime membership my brother pays for as a second household? Something like that. He gets all the prime benefits, I don’t get full benefits, no access to movies or free kindle books (they actually have a fair amount of free content without subscription frees…).  The big benefit that I get is the free two day shipping… ten years ago it was amazing.  I live really rurally so tend to order things that can’t be found locally.  But that has changed dramatically in the past several years, especially since covid. I still get “two day shipping” but things don’t actually ship until 5-7 or more days after I order.  Would I get better shipping if I actually had a paying subscription?! 

Then there is ethics to consider.  I’ve weaned myself mostly off amz, slow shipping helps. Target fills a lot of gaps (only slightly better ethics) good variety, good prices on some our staples, ships quickly, super good return policy and 5% discount via their card. Target has been a godsend during covid when we’ve had to avoid stores due to high risk factors. Our local Walmart just became the first store in town to offer pick up (super rural, remember). So we’re switching some of our shopping there. Questionable ethics, but it cuts out the individual shipping and keeps more resources locally than amz for sure.

For movies and tv we do have a fire stick… which makes it easy to access a ton of free content. We do rotate subscriptions. Right now we have our local pbs and 99c ad-based Hulu.  We also have an Ecco show Alexa device mostly to video call grandma. It’s creepy. We consider selling it, but it is the best sounding music speaker we have and I love it. We did a three month trial of the amz unlimited music and really enjoyed it but don’t find it worth paying for.  They still offer a lot of free/ad based channels.  I tend toward classical and those are ad-lite. We also use it for podcasts, YouTube listening and npr. But if you were my friend I’d tell you to avoid buying it due to the creep factor.

To sum it up, I’ve enjoyed some Amazon prime in the past but I cannot fathom it being worth such a hefty subscription fee when there are so many other options available.

Music is an extra $6/mo

[Paper Chaser]

"It means I don't have to drive to the store and use fuel"-- You're skipping a trip to the store in a vehicle that probably gets 25+mpg to have things delivered by a truck that's lucky to get 10mpg.

This doesn't seem like a solid argument.  The delivery van is already on my suburban street every day.  My car is sitting at my house b/c I don't have a commute any more.  I have to go much further out of my way (a couple miles) to get to the grocery store (or further for other sorts of retail) than the delivery driver has to go out of their way to get to my house.

Also, citation required on the fleet fuel efficiency.  I didn't find the number in the 2 minutes I searched.

I'm not saying Prime is the best thing ever.
I'm saying your argument presents as inaccurate and unsupported.

The moral arguments around business practices and supporting competition are much more convincing, I find.  I suspect it'll be hard to present an efficiency-based argument when Amazon has scale and incentive to improve.

I live in a fairly rural spot and see multiple Amazon trucks in my neighborhood on the same day pretty regularly. It's not like they're loading up everything for this area and just making one run and then doing it again the next day.

Delivery trucks are giant unaerodynamic boxes that get filled with heavy things and driven in lots of stop/go scenarios by drivers in a time crunch who like to use the accelerator pedal:

https://www.foxla.com/news/upcoming-fleet-of-usps-trucks-has-terrible-gas-mileage-epa-reports

Most of the Amazon trucks in my 'hood are Ram Promasters. 14mpg average in normal driving:

https://www.caranddriver.com/ram/promaster

Now fill it with packages, do lots of stop/go, and you're seeing 10mpg.

Average US fleet efficiency is right in the 25mpg ballpark. Surely a MMMer drives something that can do better than that right?

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/average-fuel-economy-2019-epa-report/

[Cranky]

I don’t drive, so Amazon has made a big difference to me. It’s definitely worth the money for *me*.

[jnw]

It is well worth the cost to us. I did just purchase a membership at the current price that I will use to get another year at $119 (thanks for that tip!), but it is worth is to us even with the price increase.

Wait I am not clear what you did?  My prime auto-renewed for $119 last month, so I'm good for another 11 months.  But I can buy an additonal year now at $119?  I think i'd do that..t hat's a $20 return on $119 I'd spend anyways.  The Amazon Prime fee pays for itself five-fold (or more) for how I use Amazon.

[jnw]

"We pay this fee because they've got lots of free Kindle books or shipping is free"-- Uhh, guys... it's not free if you have to pay over $100/mo for the privilege. If you're buying enough shit that the free shipping justifies the price of Prime then you're buying too much crap that's very likely to end up in a landfill in pretty short order. You can get truly free books, ebooks, movies, etc from your local library.

We've truly lost the plot haven't we?

It's not $100/mo.  It's $11.58.  You are entitled to yoru opinion but with what I buy and need for this household on Amazon, it would cost me that much just in auto fuel.  not considering the wear and tear on vehicle.. not including the 5% I get back with Amazin Prime Credit card.  Also saves a lot of time as it is delivered to yoru door.. Wow you really like shopping at department stores for random items you can't even read a review on?   At leat everythign I buy online I am making an informed decision instead of whatever is in stock on the shelves.  The amazon prime videos, free audible books, kindle books, photo storage are just added freebies which many make use of.   You risk your life driving around town several times per month instead of just payign $11.58 per month (whcih would barely cover yoru gas).

e.g. I bought a $6 audio cable from Amazon yesterday, which I'd have to drive 20 miles roudn trip for here locally.  at 50 cents per mile that's $10 for gas and wear and tear on vehicle.  You do the math :)  That one trip for an audio cable pays for the prime subscription.  Not to mention saving an hour of your time or more in traffic.. and lowering the risk you'd get in an auto accident.  Auto accidents suck I've been in a couple.

Also returns are a breeze if I nee dto do one.. No driving to store and waiting in line. I jsut print out the label and sit on my porch for the UPS driver to come pick up.

I cant stand driving to stores only to find the item I want is out of stock after spendign 15 minutes looking for it with assistance of clueless helpers.   Waiting in long lines suck too.   So does parking sometimes.