Octopus Overlords

Jeff V wrote:They don't sit on anything with Prime. More often than not, I have my stuff the next day...even when I order the evening before!

Smoove_B wrote:I gave up shopping locally. More often than not, I can find it cheaper and waste less of my own time and gas driving around looking for things.

Sith Lord wrote:I just can't bring myself to spend the equivalent of 3-4 hardcover books just to upgrade my shipping when I'm used to getting it for free.

Jeff V wrote:

Sith Lord wrote:I just can't bring myself to spend the equivalent of 3-4 hardcover books just to upgrade my shipping when I'm used to getting it for free.

If you're just ordering books from Amazon, your scope is very limited. Books are typically the least-urgent thing I ever buy from them.

Jeff V wrote:

Sith Lord wrote:I just can't bring myself to spend the equivalent of 3-4 hardcover books just to upgrade my shipping when I'm used to getting it for free.

If you're just ordering books from Amazon, your scope is very limited. Books are typically the least-urgent thing I ever buy from them.

Chaz wrote:I've said it before (maybe even in this thread), but the real trick about Prime is cost-sharing. You can have up to (I think) five accounts under one Prime membership, but they all have to be family. The trick is that the verification they use is that they have to know your birthday, I think. You send them an invite, specify that they're your aunt, cousin, something. They get the invite, verify that they're that relative, and put in your birthday. Bam, they're on the Prime account. Split the cost four ways, and it's only $20 per year.

LawBeefaroni wrote:Last 6 months:
Card game
Cuff links
Dress shirt
Thermal shirt
Dress shirt
Dress shirt
Flash card reader
Zune adapter
Watch case back opener
Zojirushi lunch jar
Vapor Performance Long Sleeve T-Shirt (x4)
Matar Paneer 15-Ounce Cans (Pack of 12) (subscription)
T shirt

Thinking about it, I haven't bought clothes in a walk-in store for a long time.

The wife has ordered a bunch of books.

naednek wrote: I'm always leary about buying clothes online. I have to try on my clothes before buying. Just because it says Large doesn't mean it's going to fit.

Crabbs wrote:

Chaz wrote:I've said it before (maybe even in this thread), but the real trick about Prime is cost-sharing. You can have up to (I think) five accounts under one Prime membership, but they all have to be family. The trick is that the verification they use is that they have to know your birthday, I think. You send them an invite, specify that they're your aunt, cousin, something. They get the invite, verify that they're that relative, and put in your birthday. Bam, they're on the Prime account. Split the cost four ways, and it's only $20 per year.

Doesn't the shipping address need to be the same though? I thought it was same household, not family.

If I want to add my brothers to this they'd have to sign in with my account though obviously then....

Chaz wrote:

Crabbs wrote:

Chaz wrote:I've said it before (maybe even in this thread), but the real trick about Prime is cost-sharing. You can have up to (I think) five accounts under one Prime membership, but they all have to be family. The trick is that the verification they use is that they have to know your birthday, I think. You send them an invite, specify that they're your aunt, cousin, something. They get the invite, verify that they're that relative, and put in your birthday. Bam, they're on the Prime account. Split the cost four ways, and it's only $20 per year.

Doesn't the shipping address need to be the same though? I thought it was same household, not family.

If I want to add my brothers to this they'd have to sign in with my account though obviously then....

Nope, it should be perfectly fine with all the accounts using different shipping/billing addresses. Unless they've recently changed something.

Blackhawk wrote:I still love my Prime, but as of today I started having to pay sales tax on Amazon purchases.

Not unfair, but damn, damn, damn.

Smoove_B wrote:Amazon just added all 7 seasons of The Shield to their video streaming service -- free for Prime members.

Hamlet3145 wrote:

Smoove_B wrote:Amazon just added all 7 seasons of The Shield to their video streaming service -- free for Prime members.

Awesome. I've never seen it.

Enough wrote:Now if they would just add Portlandia.

Koz wrote:Yeah I'm in the same boat (I mooch off my dad's subscription). I've been tempted to upgrade to the full thing but not sure if I really spend $80 a year on shipping.

Yeah I'm in the same boat (I mooch off my dad's subscription). I've been tempted to upgrade to the full thing but not sure if I really spend $80 a year on shipping.

Grand_Director wrote:Amazon Prime is streaming on Wii! So when I missed Downton Abby because I was watching a Super Bowl, I just paid a couple bucks later that week and kept up. that was great. Amazon also has Fringe (Netflix doesn't) and it's free.

I'm thinking about buying Star Wars, the Clone Wars...for my nine year old

Hamlet3145 wrote:Also just noticed that the first three seasons of Justified are up on Prime Video now too.

Bullish analysts at Morningstar teamed with Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) to dig into what is known about Amazon to come up with some reasonable estimates of the numbers behind Prime. The results are startling.

Amazon started its fiscal 2012 with a little fewer than 7 million Prime members and ended with nearly 10 million, largely thanks to the free Prime promotion that comes with the purchase of the company’s bestselling Kindle Fire. That increase alone represents a huge coup for Amazon, an awesome display of locking in customer loyalty. As the report points out, those millions of people spending $79 each are all incurring a major “switching cost” — in other words, since they’ve shelled out so much to enjoy special privileges for shopping at Amazon, they’re less likely to shop elsewhere.
...
At the same time, CIRP’s market research found those Prime members annually spent more than twice as much on average ($1,224) than non-Prime customers ($505). Adding in the $79 membership fee, Prime members bring nearly $800 more in sales per customer to Amazon. After subtracting all the additional costs of doing business with Prime customers — mainly greater expenses for sales, shipping and video streaming — Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy found that Prime members accounted for $78 more in profit before interest and taxes per customer than non-Prime customers. That’s almost exactly the cost of a Prime membership.

To put that figure in context: Amazon’s average operating income last year per each of its 182 million total customers came to less than $10. In other words, every Prime member is about eight times as valuable to Amazon as a non-Prime member. Put yet another way: More than one-third of Amazon’s profits before interest and taxes came from fewer than four percent of the people who buy stuff on Amazon.
...
If Prime members are anywhere near as valuable a catch as the Morningstar report’s figures make them out to be, Amazon should be trying to make that price as low as possible. Or as CIRP’s Levin says: “They should be able to give Prime away for free.”

Chaz wrote:Umm, if one of your early points is that Prime members are more loyal because of the cost of signing up, then it really doesn't make a lot of sense to end it by saying "they should be lowering the cost as much as possible, free if possible."

I'm sure they could lower the price of Prime, but if they're making a bunch of money on it, why bother annoying the people who have paid the higher cost in the past year? Of course, since Amazon is super smart, what they'd probably do is offer an Amazon gift card for the difference in price to everyone who paid within, say, the last six months. That would probably take care of any ill-will for a fairly low total cost.