A few months ago, we ended up with a prime membership from Amazon. In short, we do not have cable TV, but we still have internet for things like Netflix and Amazon prime. We received a notice saying our current device we were using to access Amazon Prime content would be out of date soon, and gave us a special offer on a Fire Stick. We took the deal because there are some things we watch. Fire stick came and all was good - it really is neat if anybody is wondering about it. It does game apps and stuff the kids like, along with the other features you'll have to read about. Anyway, it came with a free month of Prime.
Now I know that prime has been discussed here in length and I have read some about it. We decided to let it ride to see what it was about. I have to say, I have not been all that impressed. I'm sure there are all sorts of things it has that actually benefits, but I am struggling to find them.
My family doesn't watch a lot of TV, but we do occasionally sit down and watch a show. All the shows that we are interested in still cost money. They will be like $1.99 - $3.99 an episode. Movies that we really want to see..cost money. Very few things we want are actually included in prime.
They say they offer free book borrowing or whatever you call it in the cloud. I have searched for several books and none of them I want to read are free.
So anyway, we were not very mustachian like and let the trial period run out without cancelling. They charged me $99 for the year for the Prime membership. I still let it go, and said I would research and try to find as much stuff as possible that we could actually order verses buying at the store. That has not been too exciting either. I have not had much time to actually sit down and really look, but after a little bit of studying, I'm finding that a lot of things cost nearly the same on Amazon as they do in a local store. Some even cost more. This makes no sense to me.
I have noticed this trend on ebay as well when looking for specific items. For some reason, it is like some sellers prey on stupid people. I can be looking for, say, a lightbulb that costs $1. That is the average price. I know I can usually find some ebay power seller that has it for $.85 shipped, along with all the other sellers that have it for $1. Then, somewhere in the list is some jack leg seller offering the same bulb for $4! I always scratch my head and think "Why do they do this? Do they do it because they think some unsuspecting customer will search, and this is the first that will pop up, so they just buy it without further research?" I mean really!
I was surprised to see the same thing on Amazon this morning. I am searching for things I think I might be able to find cheaper on Amazon, and looking at Angel Soft toilet paper. Most of it is around $.45-.55 / count. Well down at the bottom of the list is a four pack for $8.69! What in the world! That works out to about $2.17 / count!
Bottom line is, I am not seeing much better prices than I see in the store. About the only thing I gain, is having one less bag to carry home from the store. Since the items I am looking at are Prime, the shipping is free, but the price is the same as it is in the store..roughly.
And then there is the Prime Pantry thing. This seems dumb to me. The first reason it makes me mad is because it charges a flat rate of like $5.99 shipping, once I fill a box up. This pisses me off for two reasons. 1.) I have t pay for shipping when I already paid $100 for Prime membership and shipping should be free. 2.), The having to fill the box to get it to the point where it will ship is just a marketing trick to make me spend more money.
Sneaky folks..
I am just not sure prime is worth it.