Amazon prime

[FiguringItOut]

Tell me why amazon prime is worth paying $99?

This is totally stupid, but I am considering it over the most ridiculous reason ever - toilet paper.

I don't have access to Costco or BJ's around me, although I have BJ's membership that I'm not paying for.  I don't have a car, and getting to one and bringing bulky things home is not really a doable proposition.  Plus the hassle is just not worth it to me.

I generally can find most anything in my local small supermarket around the corner.  Except toilet paper.  I know it's stupid, but they charge a dollar per roll there, sales are close to being a joke, and I just spend more time thinking about toilet paper in the last two days than anyone should spend in a year.  I feel that just that is worth the $99 to never think about toilet paper again.

And I like buying toilet paper in either Costco or BJ's because it comes in bulk packages, it's cheaper than in the store near me, I can usually get 2 large cubes of it and will last a while (we go through a lot of TP, don't judge).
And I usually have to ask someone to drive me to the store so I can shop, drive me back, it involves a lot of coordinating and asking for favors, none of which I like.   And we just ran out of the last cube I had from Costco.  bought 4 rolls for $4 last night from the store down the street.

I just checked on amazon, and Costco sized cube is the same price as in Costco, but is only available to prime members. 

So, other than toilet paper, what is the benefit of prime?  I don't have a need for their music/tv/kidle/audible stuff, although I or the kids will probably use it if we have it.  BTW, if I get the membership, can kids use it on their phones for music/kindle or will then need my membership login?  If so, it may not work.
Is there a good selection of kindle/audible books about FI and Real Estate investing available through prime? If so, it may be worth it, as my local library sucks more than Hoover.

We order stuff from amazon fairly often - 16 separate orders this year.  I tend to collect things in my shopping cart for a while until there is enough to get free shipping.  Through this, I have a tendency to change my mind and delete things from the cart before I order.  Concern is that with prime I'll buy more since there is no need to wait and think it over.
On the other hand, I have something sitting in my card for 2 weeks now that I really need but it's less then $49 to qualify for free shipping, and since I don't have anything else I need, I can't seem to just order the stupid thing.

I feel like this is the stupidest post ever. 

[I'm a red panda]

Music and video streaming.
Diapers are 20% off with prime.
The free shipping minimum is really high now- it would take me months to accumulate enough to spend that.
Works really well with a deal site like snagshout (where we've gotten almost all of our whole bean coffee and ovulation tests this year- for really really reduced prices)

[FiguringItOut]

Music and video streaming.
Diapers are 20% off with prime.
The free shipping minimum is really high now- it would take me months to accumulate enough to spend that.
Works really well with a deal site like snagshout (where we've gotten almost all of our whole bean coffee and ovulation tests this year- for really really reduced prices)

I agree on  minimum shipping.  It takes me months too to get to that threshold in my shopping cart.

[geekette]

Do you have any friends with Prime?  They can ship it to you and you can pay them with cash/paypal.  I do that all the time for my mom.

Another option might be Target.  They have plenty of TP, often on sale, and they do free shipping with their Red Card (and 5% off as well).

[seemsright]

I use Amazon prime a lot so to me it is worth the cost. I enjoy working out at a gym and the prime music would be worth the cost alone for me.

We all use the same account. On the kids kindle (that we got for nothing) I just made it so that she really cannot do anything without a password that she does not know. Easy.

I think being on the path of FI there are times that spending money makes since. And if a membership to Amazon Prime for the sole reason to buy Toilet Paper makes your life simpler then do it. Now if you are doing this and then not be able to buy food or keep a roof over your head then dont.

Another way to look at the cost is it is $99 but it is only a $1.90 a week. And if you do nothing but buy toilet paper I bet it would pay for itself alone in cost and hassle. Use the other perks and it would be worth it IMO.

[FiguringItOut]

Do you have any friends with Prime?  They can ship it to you and you can pay them with cash/paypal.  I do that all the time for my mom.

Another option might be Target.  They have plenty of TP, often on sale, and they do free shipping with their Red Card (and 5% off as well).

NObody I know has Prime.

Also no Target or Walmart or anything like that that I can get to.  I sometimes order and ship from walmart.com, but even with the stupid toilet paper, walmart is more expensive and charges shipping.

I swear, this toilet paper will have the best of me.  lol

[FireHiker]

I use Amazon Prime for a handful of reasons. I first got it because pull-ups were much cheaper with Prime than anywhere I could find in person, or on Amazon without Prime (we cloth-diapered our last two kids, but my youngest is still nowhere close to dry overnight, and having a bucket full of diapers around for a week when we're only using one per day, plus needing to buy a whole new stash in a bigger size, well that was our line apparently).

Other benefits I've found since we got it: We don't have cable, and have watched a lot of great shows and movies on Amazon Prime. I use the music streaming every day at work (the free/included one, not the new one that costs more in addition to Prime). My husband's best friend gave us an Echo and we use the prime music to stream at home all the time too. I love that if I need one small thing I can get free shipping; I actually buy a LOT less unnecessary stuff than I used to when I tried to get to the "free" shipping, and the 2 day shipping is pretty nice. I do have a kindle and, while I check most books out from the library, Prime includes a free book loan per month.

As to your question, yes, I think that you can add your kids to the account. My husband is on mine (there's a household permissions thing I think; it's been a year since we set it up), so he has access to all of my ebooks using the kindle app on his ipad. With the music streaming though only one person can use it at a time unless you pay extra I think, which we aren't willing to do.

You could always get it for one year and do a cost/benefit analysis on it. I can't imagine paying $1 per roll for toilet paper. We buy ours at Costco and that's the biggest thing I'll miss if we eventually move somewhere without a Costco, or can't justify the membership once the kids are out of the house.

[geekette]

Do you have any friends with Prime?  They can ship it to you and you can pay them with cash/paypal.  I do that all the time for my mom.

Another option might be Target.  They have plenty of TP, often on sale, and they do free shipping with their Red Card (and 5% off as well).

NObody I know has Prime.

Also no Target or Walmart or anything like that that I can get to.  I sometimes order and ship from walmart.com, but even with the stupid toilet paper, walmart is more expensive and charges shipping.

I swear, this toilet paper will have the best of me.  lol

Target.com does free shipping with their Red Card.  No need to go there, but you do need to get their card. Info here.

[FiguringItOut]

I use Amazon prime a lot so to me it is worth the cost. I enjoy working out at a gym and the prime music would be worth the cost alone for me.

We all use the same account. On the kids kindle (that we got for nothing) I just made it so that she really cannot do anything without a password that she does not know. Easy.

I think being on the path of FI there are times that spending money makes since. And if a membership to Amazon Prime for the sole reason to buy Toilet Paper makes your life simpler then do it. Now if you are doing this and then not be able to buy food or keep a roof over your head then dont.

Another way to look at the cost is it is $99 but it is only a $1.90 a week. And if you do nothing but buy toilet paper I bet it would pay for itself alone in cost and hassle. Use the other perks and it would be worth it IMO.

How did you set up the account for the kid?  Both of my kids have their own phones, so they would want to stream music and use kindle on their phones. They don't have kindles.  However, I don't want them to see my amazon account, my wish lists, etc, as I put things there that are future gifts or just things I think of that I later delete, but if my kids see them, then they would be asking about it.  Things like that.

I would've never thought that I would be doing this over toilet paper.  But after TP dominating my thoughts for two days, I think I've reached my breaking point.  I am willing to pay anything to not think about it anymore.  lol

[Kevin S.]

I bought the month to month subscription. First month is free. It's 10 bucks a month.

I bought almost all my xmas gifts for the fiancé and my mom via amazon. Free shipping on all of it. Everything got here within 2 days as promised. Pretty convenient !

I originally bought it to watch "the grand tour"

I still may cancel it out since I generally don't buy much online anymore. Costco or the regular grocery store for my consumables seems to work out well for me.

Meh. I say do it ! Try it for the 30 day free trial. Get more toilet paper than you can use in a year and then cancel membership=Profit !

[RedmondStash]

We have Amazon Prime. It's a luxury, definitely.

Other benefits than those already listed include a free 6-month subscription to the Washington Post, and a discounted one after that.

The way I see it, money is not like the gold hoard a dragon sits on and never spends. It exists to improve your life. If spending $99 per year on Amazon Prime improves your life demonstrably, and you can afford it without sacrificing more important goals, then why not?

We all have our expenses that may seem frivolous or unnecessary to other people. Who cares? It's your life.

I say try Prime for a year and see what you think. If it isn't worth it, just don't re-up next year.

[Bracken_Joy]

I love it for Subscribe and Save- we do this every other month for the 15% off, our dog's food is on there. Also do makeup, toothpaste, lotion, etc. This may *not* be cheaper for other people- we tend to use natural products (aka hippy shit) that isn't carried at Costco and the like on major discount.

Prime pantry is also awesome, but you have to be very deliberate with what items you choose. Be sure to check the coupons!

I also really like it for Francios et Mimi, a very odd company that just... gives you free shit. They used to do it in exchange for a review, but then that became against the rules, so now they just beg you to tell your family/friends. I've gotten free phone chargers, a free tea pot, a free flatware set in stainless steel, a free cutting board, etc. Legit products for legit free. (Seriously felt like a scam at first, but I found it on here and the poster was someone I trusted so I tried it... yep, just free shit!) Anyway, all their free stuff is through amazon.

You mention your kids- see if you can get student pricing through any of them. It's $69/yr then rather than $99/yr.

[Nothlit]

I was not aware that there are generic physical products on Amazon which are only available to Prime members. That seems surprising.

I'm a Prime subscriber, and I find value in the video streaming, free e-books, etc., but you have outlined some of my concerns as well – the easy free shipping can make it tempting sometimes to buy something that I might otherwise reconsider if I had more time to think about it.

If it were me, I don't think I would pay $99/year just for the convenience of buying toilet paper online. There would have to be more to it than that.

[FiguringItOut]

I was not aware that there are generic physical products on Amazon which are only available to Prime members. That seems surprising.

I'm a Prime subscriber, and I find value in the video streaming, free e-books, etc., but you have outlined some of my concerns as well – the easy free shipping can make it tempting sometimes to buy something that I might otherwise reconsider if I had more time to think about it.

If it were me, I don't think I would pay $99/year just for the convenience of buying toilet paper online. There would have to be more to it than that.

I was surprised too, but I found out about it about a year ago when I was looking for something else, don't remember what it was.

I know, toilet paper is the stupidest reason ever.  Then again, I bought 4 rolls for $4 last night.  How stupid is that?

[geekette]

Amazon also occasionally has quick "sales" on Amazon Prime.  The last one was in November, though, so it might be a while.

If they ever screw up shipping and it doesn't come on time, just do an online chat and they'll give you an additional month of Prime free (up to 12 per year).  Details here.

But seriously - check out target.com to see if they have your TP.

[FiguringItOut]

I love it for Subscribe and Save- we do this every other month for the 15% off, our dog's food is on there. Also do makeup, toothpaste, lotion, etc. This may *not* be cheaper for other people- we tend to use natural products (aka hippy shit) that isn't carried at Costco and the like on major discount.

Prime pantry is also awesome, but you have to be very deliberate with what items you choose. Be sure to check the coupons!

I also really like it for Francios et Mimi, a very odd company that just... gives you free shit. They used to do it in exchange for a review, but then that became against the rules, so now they just beg you to tell your family/friends. I've gotten free phone chargers, a free tea pot, a free flatware set in stainless steel, a free cutting board, etc. Legit products for legit free. (Seriously felt like a scam at first, but I found it on here and the poster was someone I trusted so I tried it... yep, just free shit!) Anyway, all their free stuff is through amazon.

You mention your kids- see if you can get student pricing through any of them. It's $69/yr then rather than $99/yr.

I have to research all three of these.  Thanks

[FiguringItOut]

Amazon also occasionally has quick "sales" on Amazon Prime.  The last one was in November, though, so it might be a while.

If they ever screw up shipping and it doesn't come on time, just do an online chat and they'll give you an additional month of Prime free (up to 12 per year).  Details here.

But seriously - check out target.com to see if they have your TP.

Thanks.  I'll check target also

[Bracken_Joy]

Amazon also occasionally has quick "sales" on Amazon Prime.  The last one was in November, though, so it might be a while.

If they ever screw up shipping and it doesn't come on time, just do an online chat and they'll give you an additional month of Prime free (up to 12 per year).  Details here.

But seriously - check out target.com to see if they have your TP.

Oh, this is a great point. I've had good luck with Target for bath products. In fact, I usually buy all my Dr Bronner's liquid soap there, because they have 20% off toiletries sales every few months.

I also know a lot of people love the cartwheel app? I haven't looked into it, so not sure the details there.

Plus, with target, be sure you buy a giftcard through cardpool first and *then* do an online order.

Which reminds me another savings on amazon we do- we have the amazon store card, so we get 5% back.

[NathanP]

Even though the OP does not have a Walmart or Target available, Amazon prime is still worth it simply for the convenience. I needed a refill of a supplement that I take, and I went to amazon and found/ordered it within 60 seconds. The price was good, the Prime shipping is "free" and I will have it in my mailbox in two days.

Imagine having go inside a Walmart, find the supplements section, find the one or two items they have available, choose one blindly (no helpful reviews), walk to the checkout, wait, go back home. I would happily pay for the shipping just to avoid doing this.

If you can see yourself doing this more than once or twice a month, then Prime is worth it. The online Prime video selection is also ok and getting better. If not for Prime, we would have Netflix.

[FiguringItOut]

Even though the OP does not have a Walmart or Target available, Amazon prime is still worth it simply for the convenience. I needed a refill of a supplement that I take, and I went to amazon and found/ordered it within 60 seconds. The price was good, the Prime shipping is "free" and I will have it in my mailbox in two days.

Imagine having go inside a Walmart, find the supplements section, find the one or two items they have available, choose one blindly (no helpful reviews), walk to the checkout, wait, go back home. I would happily pay for the shipping just to avoid doing this.

If you can see yourself doing this more than once or twice a month, then Prime is worth it. The online Prime video selection is also ok and getting better. If not for Prime, we would have Netflix.

Thank you.  I am with you, although I don't have these big box stores around, I used to before I moved.  And I hated them. 

I already have netflix.  But after all these replies I am leaning towards prime.

I also just remembered that I am running out of Tide Pods and the last time I got them was also from Costco when someone did me a favor and drove me there and back. 
I think I'm pulling the trigger on Prime to give it a try.

[Bracken_Joy]

Here's a guide to finding the coupons: https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-find-and-clip-amazon-instant-coupons/

Let us know how you like it!

And count me among the people who don't have netflix or hulu and just use prime video.

[LouLou]

Amazon keeps track of all your orders.  You can try Prime for a year, and then review your purchases to decide if it was worth it.

I use Prime for the following:

- Subscribe and Save - I get regular shipments so I rarely go to stores.  Toilet paper, coffee, baby wipes, cat litter (heavy), cat food, some cleaning supplies.  This stuff just appears at my door.  I hardly ever go to Target or Walmart anymore. I never wake up and realize that I'm out of coffee.  It saves me the hassle of dealing with driving, parking, crowds, and seeing displays that try to convince me to buy more stuff.

- Video streaming - When I feel the need for yoga, I stream a video on Amazon instead of paying for a class.  I also like some of Amazon's original scripted programming.

- Music streaming - I regularly listen to albums that I definitely would have bought that are just included in Prime.

- 2 day shipping - There are times where I really cannot get to a store for something in the next two days, but with Amazon it will appear at my house in that time frame.

For me, it is worth it.

[Riff]

We love Prime.

One other feature that we use that I don't think was mentioned yet is free photo backup.  We use it to back up our photos from our phones (the camera that we almost always have with us).  Now if we ever lose our phone, we at least won't lose our photos.

[Beridian]

I love Amazon.com and Amazon Prime.  I tell people "I never stand in line at Amazon." 

Furthermore I almost always find exactly what I am looking for at a competitive price.   With Amazon Prime the item is on my porch two days later without my having to drive to a store, roam the isles searching for what I am looking for, then stand in a ten-minute line to pay.   The only bricks-and-mortar stores that I frequent anymore are the grocery store, Costco, and occasionally Home Depot.  99% of everything else I need can be bought at Amazon. 

Shopping on the internet has many great advantages.  Amazon's review function greatly helps me to judge the quality of an item.    The search function make even obscure repair parts easy to find.  Also I use the Amazon music streaming service and occasionally download video content.  One final thought is Amazon keeps a instantly accessible history of everything I have ever bought going back to the 1990's, this comes in handy when I am trying to remember what I paid for something or if I had purchased it before.  On those very rare occasions when I have to return something Amazon does not quibble and makes the return a breeze, print a shipping label and drop it off at the post office.  The recent times when I have had to return something at traditional retailer I have always had to stand in a line.  Grrrrrr I HATE STANDING IN LINES!!

I feel sorry for traditional retailers, Amazon is dominating retail for very good reasons.  Amazon Prime is worth every penny in my opinion.

[Dave1442397]

I bought Prime for $79 on Black Friday.

I had never bothered with Prime before, but the minimum shipping is now high enough that it's an annoyingly long wait to get the cart that high.

Do you get the "try Prime free for a month" offers? I have used that in the past when I wanted to order something in a hurry or with high shipping costs, and then canceled it again before the month is up. I seemed to get away with doing that at least once a year.

[ketchup]

Amazon Prime subscriber here.

I haven't bought toilet paper on Amazon.  Costco's still got my TP dollar.  I think it's $15.99 or $17.99 there for a "cube" and it looks like the equivalent is about $20 on Amazon.  Maybe I'm misremembering/looking at the wrong thing.

Anyway, yes you can use your Prime account on phones/kindle/tablet.  I use mine on my phone for Amazon Music.  Their video selection is decent (but the interface is awful) with a few gems like The Man In The High Castle.

So, other than toilet paper, what is the benefit of prime?

  For us, the real benefit is having to go to any stores for only fresh groceries, and able to buy nearly everything else online, mostly on Amazon.  Us damn millennials hate going to the store, and Amazon is capitalizing on that.  Recent random purchases: books, computer parts, dog treats, shelf-stable groceries, photography accessories, phone cases, Dremel sanding bands, dog shampoo, kombucha scoby.  No store has all of those things, and certainly none would involve only a few minutes of my time.

Free (>$35) same-day shipping (if ordered before noon) is available in my area too, which is turning out to be outrageously convenient.  My wifi router died a while back on a Sunday morning, and we were going to be gone all day.  I placed the order for a new one at 7am before we left, and it was waiting for us when we got home at 4pm.  One time, I needed tamarind paste for a recipe, ordered it (along with other stuff to bump it over $35) at work at 11am, and it was waiting at home for me when I arrived.  No need to dig through a grocery store to find it.  GF texts me one morning saying one of the dogs might have fleas and we need some specialized medicated shampoo ASAP.  Arrived within a few hours.  It's great.

Amazon keeps giving me fewer reasons to go to the store, even in "a pinch."  Once Amazon nails down fresh groceries (it'll happen), I'll hardly ever need to go anywhere to buy anything.

If there's a shipping snafu (very rare), they'll usually extend your Prime membership out a month if you bitch.  One time when I complained about that (something arriving a day late), they instead let me keep the item and refunded me ($40).  All this was done through the online form, no phone call needed.

We order stuff from amazon fairly often - 16 separate orders this year.

Oof, do you even lift bro?

Kidding aside, we (household of two) share our account with three people that each order stuff occasionally, "only" about 100 of those orders are truly ours.  And with no order minimum, some are small <$10 things.

[Papa bear]

I've had a lot of products not ship in 2 days with prime.  Most of the time it's not a big deal.  But when it does happen, send an email to customer service with a complaint.  They'll give you a month free.  We haven't paid in awhile =)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Livingthedream55]

Also - please consider linking your Amazon account to Amazon Smiles. 1/2% of your spending will be donated to the charity of your choice.


https://smile.amazon.com/

[golden1]

There are indirect benefits to Amazon prime depending on what type of shopper you are. 

Instead of going shopping for something at a physical store, I am more likely to just go to Amazon and grab the one item I need and get it.  As a reforming impulse shopper who still has lapses, this means that Amazon prime ends up saving me probably hundreds a year.  It also saves you the gas money of driving to the store yourself, and probably saves some overall carbon footprint in mass deliveries vs.  individual pickups, but I don't know that for sure. 

Some credit cards, like Chase Freedom that I use, give you trade in rewards credit at Amazon that links directly from your card to your account.  I probably get half of my Amazon purchases "paid for" using rewards credit. 

The prime music and prime video are nice, although I don't use them too often.  The prime reading is a new feature that gives you some books and magazines for free. 

I think prime is a good deal for probably 65% of people out there, if not more. 

[firelight]

I didn't find prime to be of much value. I found that I was paying more when I was logged in as a prime member vs looking it up on an incognito mode. We buy most everything on target.com and they have almost everything we need at competitive prices. They also price match Amazon (other way around doesn't work) and have subscription options. I can also return pretty easily if needed. That said, we use Netflix and YouTube and didn't need Amazon for our entertainment. Libraries keep me filled with books I need.

[NoStacheOhio]

I love prime. Mostly for the free two day shipping. Sometimes we end up placing two or three small orders a day or two apart, just because life happens. We get a lot of random household stuff on Amazon, some of which is harder to find in stores (specific coffee filters), and some that's just easier online. Our primary account shows 41 orders this year.

If you don't want the kids on your main account, you can use the householding feature, where you can get sub-accounts that all share one membership. I don't remember all of the details, but they get most of the same prime benefits, with a few limits. My wife and I have separate sub-accounts for secret gifting and streaming without messing up the other person's shows, but most of our purchases just go through the primary account.

They also have some really good original series (Man in the High Castle is awesome).

[NV Teacher]

I love Amazon Prime and order several times a month.  I love in a rural area and it's super convenient to order and have it show up two days later.  I could drive to the nearest big city but it's 100 miles round trip and while I'm going I might as well go to the fabric and craft store, a couple of thrift stores, and out to eat since I drove all the way there.  So in the long run I figure the $99/year fee is a bargain.

[Mtngrl]

We live in the boonies -- it's 45 minutes to all but minimal shopping. Not a real problem, since I don't like shopping. With Prime we can get almost anything we can think of -- including, as someone upthread mentioned -- repair parts for all kinds of things. These are items we would otherwise have to find a specialty store and search around for. Even though we live in the middle of nowhere, we get two-day shipping all the time -- sometimes it's even one-day shipping (though not same day -- we're too far out for that.) We use Subscribe and Save for a couple of items we use regularly -- Greenies for the dogs and black tea for me -- better prices than anywhere else and we never run out. I've used the Prime Pantry option for groceries occasionally. Prime Music and Prime Video are awesome -- we don't have Netflix or Hulu or anything else.
I'm convinced Prime saves us money because we aren't making the trek to town all the time -- when we have driven that far we feel compelled to buy more, I think. And we're more likely to repair something if the parts are easy to get. And if I need something that costs, say, $8, I don't have to wait and wait until I've accumulated enough items to reach the free shipping threshold.
We get our pet food from a local small store that matches Amazon pricing, but if you don't have that option, Prime is great for pet food -- no lugging around big bags from the store -- they deliver to your door for a great price. This has been great for my husband's elderly parents.

[Nothlit]

Also - please consider linking your Amazon account to Amazon Smiles. 1/2% of your spending will be donated to the charity of your choice.


https://smile.amazon.com/

Also note that you must shop and checkout on smile.amazon.com in order for the charitable donation to take place. In other words, even if you have set a preferred charity using smile.amazon.com, if you later shop on (plain-old) amazon.com, the donation will not occur.

[Pigeon]

If so, it may be worth it, as my local library sucks more than Hoover.

If you really live in NYC, I'm baffled.  NYPL is amazing.  Plus, they have an awesome collection of ebooks you can download for free.   Even if you aren't an NYC resident, if you live or work in New York State, you can get an NYPL library card.

I have a student trial account of Prime as they were offering it for free for 6 months.  It does include their streaming video, but I don't see much of anything I'd want to watch.  It's nowhere near as good as Netflix as far as I'm concerned.  This membership doesn't include their streaming music or ebooks, but there aren't that many ebook titles included in Prime.

I'm not a huge Amazon fan.  Don't like their business practices and I try not to buy from them if there are other local options.  But sometimes they can't readily be avoided.  I doubt I'll renew when the free membership is up.

[Livingthedream55]

Also - please consider linking your Amazon account to Amazon Smiles. 1/2% of your spending will be donated to the charity of your choice.


https://smile.amazon.com/

Also note that you must shop and checkout on smile.amazon.com in order for the charitable donation to take place. In other words, even if you have set a preferred charity using smile.amazon.com, if you later shop on (plain-old) amazon.com, the donation will not occur.

Yes and just to be clear it's 1/2 of a percent  or .05  but no cost to you so worth the extra effort to try to help out a charity.

[lizzzi]

Absolutely worth it to me for the two-day shipping to my door...saves me a fortune in time and gas money not spent driving all over the place just looking for items, and then time spent parking, trying to find particular item in store, standing in line to pay...etc., etc. The reviews posted are helpful, too, although of course I take them with a grain of salt. At least they can give you some idea whether what you are buying is worth it or not. I use Prime Video a lot, although as someone else said, their interface is not good. You can get a lot of buffering and pixelation sometimes that Never happens on Netflix. I use Prime a lot for books, and that is where I have to be careful not to just see-want--click. Other than that, I think I use it responsibly.

It is good for gifts, too. I have purchased quite a bit of gourmet tea over the years and had it shipped to relatives for the holidays.

I will say that a couple of years ago when I was stuck at home caring for an elderly relative, Amazon Prime was a godsend. Hospital gowns, incontinence supplies, toothettes...you name it...sickroom supplies of all kinds, and sundries that I needed for the house--toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning products--just showed up at my door in two days. Since the relative had very little time with a paid home care aide, and going out to shop was well-nigh impossible for me, the convenience was more than worth the price.

[Christof]

I rarely see this mentioned... Unless you are walking or biking to the grocery store, it is much more environmentally friendly to have a single van deliver to 100-200 families, then having each of these make hundreds of trips in their car.

[CloserToFree]

We use Prime for a bunch of things but it's primarily worth it for: (1) the very quick 2- or 1- day shipping (sometimes same day now!) -- because of that it replaces conventional stores for us for a range of products from baby/kid food, diapers, household products, gifts, etc. and (2) the free Prime video library, which includes a ton of shows for kids -- and lets you download episodes to watch offline for 48 hours (key for road and plane trips when you need at-the-ready entertainment for little ones). 

BUT...

Being Prime members definitely encourages over-spending and over-shopping.  I've fallen into that trap many times -- because it's SO easy to order something, you shop more than you would otherwise.  If you join, definitely beware of this effect.  I'm not sure it's worth it to join just for the TP, but do some price comparisons of that and any other products you think you may get on there.  The convenience and time-freeing-up factor are huge.

[Ebrat]

I tried Prime and felt like I spent more. Not worth it to me. I think non-members can order things on Costco.com. Don't know how the price would compare though.

[coppertop]

All three of my adult children and their families live out of state.  That's six adult birthdays and three child birthdays a year, plus Christmas gifts.  If not for Prime with free shipping, I'd have to go shopping, pack the gifts in appropriate materials, and go to USPS or FedEx or the UPS store and pay to have the goods shipped.   That alone makes the price of membership worth it in my book. 

[Rimu05]

I use my mom's account and haven't been on mine since she got it. I simply add my payment information next to hers and take advantage. I mostly watch videos though and if she didn't have an account, I would buy it for that. I've also purchased some books.

The free two day shipping though is amazing!

[Bracken_Joy]

All three of my adult children and their families live out of state.  That's six adult birthdays and three child birthdays a year, plus Christmas gifts.  If not for Prime with free shipping, I'd have to go shopping, pack the gifts in appropriate materials, and go to USPS or FedEx or the UPS store and pay to have the goods shipped.   That alone makes the price of membership worth it in my book.

This is another big reason I use it. I *hate* shipping things. This way I can easily send things to my friends who live far away.

...I did look up how many transactions this year. 159 of them. And that's just DH and I. In my defense, we use S&S on a lot, earlier this year we lived at an address that had a duplicate so there were several lost packages they re-shipped, and DH buys a bunch of random electronics components for his masters on there. Oh, also various home repair things like valves are cheaper on there than locally.

Like someone mentioned earlier, we really only ever go to Costco, a grocery store, and a hardware store anymore.

[R62]

It's pretty widely reported that Prime members spend more at Amazon than non-Prime members (same goes for the Amazon credit card):

https://www.thestreet.com/story/13461916/1/amazon-prime-members-are-even-more-valuable-than-you-thought.html

That said, we've been Prime members for several years (and have the credit card) and like it for all the reasons listed in this thread. 

Currently, we live in a small town with no chain stores outside of groceries, and the nearest big box stores are about 25 miles away (we visit these maybe two to three times a year and load up on supplies).  Yesterday I looked at buying 3V batteries locally:  $6 for two batteries plus tax.  I ended up ordering from Amazon:  about $5.50 for four batteries, including shipping and no tax. 

I am fully aware that this shopping behavior is aiding to kill local businesses, which struggle in a small town.  When the difference in price is not so great (say 10%), then we're just as happy to buy local.

[NoStacheOhio]

It's pretty widely reported that Prime members spend more at Amazon than non-Prime members (same goes for the Amazon credit card):

https://www.thestreet.com/story/13461916/1/amazon-prime-members-are-even-more-valuable-than-you-thought.html

That said, we've been Prime members for several years (and have the credit card) and like it for all the reasons listed in this thread. 

Currently, we live in a small town with no chain stores outside of groceries, and the nearest big box stores are about 25 miles away (we visit these maybe two to three times a year and load up on supplies).  Yesterday I looked at buying 3V batteries locally:  $6 for two batteries plus tax.  I ended up ordering from Amazon:  about $5.50 for four batteries, including shipping and no tax. 

I am fully aware that this shopping behavior is aiding to kill local businesses, which struggle in a small town.  When the difference in price is not so great (say 10%), then we're just as happy to buy local.

If you're talking about coin batteries, I got 20 for like $8: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008XBK7PG/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have to use them for the pedometer at work (~$1300 health insurance discount), and we've gone through three in two pedometers since last December. So these should last a long time. :)

[geekette]

Oddly, for coin cells, eBay is often cheaper.

[R62]

It's pretty widely reported that Prime members spend more at Amazon than non-Prime members (same goes for the Amazon credit card):

https://www.thestreet.com/story/13461916/1/amazon-prime-members-are-even-more-valuable-than-you-thought.html

That said, we've been Prime members for several years (and have the credit card) and like it for all the reasons listed in this thread. 

Currently, we live in a small town with no chain stores outside of groceries, and the nearest big box stores are about 25 miles away (we visit these maybe two to three times a year and load up on supplies).  Yesterday I looked at buying 3V batteries locally:  $6 for two batteries plus tax.  I ended up ordering from Amazon:  about $5.50 for four batteries, including shipping and no tax. 

I am fully aware that this shopping behavior is aiding to kill local businesses, which struggle in a small town.  When the difference in price is not so great (say 10%), then we're just as happy to buy local.

If you're talking about coin batteries, I got 20 for like $8: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008XBK7PG/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have to use them for the pedometer at work (~$1300 health insurance discount), and we've gone through three in two pedometers since last December. So these should last a long time. :)

Yeah, I saw that the bigger quantities were even cheaper on a per unit basis, but I use these only for a thermapen, and four of them should be enough to last for years and years.   :) 

[Stachless]

In addition to all the other reasons mentioned on here, I get great value out of Amazon because it 'reminds' me to do stuff - just 'subscribe' to things according to its maintenance schedule, and when it shows up to your doorstep (at 15% off, of course) just do it!!

I get things like HVAC ventilation filters (change every 3 months!), water filters for my un-mustachian fridge (change every 4 months!), automotive maintenance items (my 2 cars, while each also un-mustachian in nature, have been paid off for a long time and are a combined 23 years old) like oil, slick50, brake pads, etc.

Its along the lines of the Low Information diet, less things to think about and no nagging sensations that I've forgotten something. Definitely worth the $99 a year!

Happy New Year folks!!!

[hollyluja]

I used to think I was frugal, but after Amazon Prime I realized I really just hate physical retail stores.

Amazon is my only real spending struggle each month, and it's ongoing.  They make it too easy to turn a thought about something it might be nice to have into a box on my doorstep.  I have to put up barriers to ordering - like aging my cart at least one week before I click "send"

[Ftao93]

I used to think I was frugal, but after Amazon Prime I realized I really just hate physical retail stores.

Amazon is my only real spending struggle each month, and it's ongoing.  They make it too easy to turn a thought about something it might be nice to have into a box on my doorstep.  I have to put up barriers to ordering - like aging my cart at least one week before I click "send"

HA! 

We went 4 years sans car.  I still hate the store.  $99 is way worth it for what we do.  PLus, streaming, backing up my photos online (it's included!), etc.     Totally worth it for us, but it does make it way too easy to spend.   The other caveat is that we got an Amazon warehouse in CO now, so I have to pay tax.  BOO!