Amazon says it has more than 100 million Prime members
 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-a...KBN1HP36Y?il=0

That's a lot.

I'm certainly one of them. Sure they have alot of stupid left wing political nonesense on it. But you do get access to alot of good things.

I wouldn't join Prime for the Movies, not many movies they've included with Prime that I'm impressed with, new or old.

But they do offer alot of other type of entertainment. I like to watch Documentary style videos, and love traveling down Conspiracy Theory rabbit holes. There is alot of them available with Prime, from both points of view, which is always welcome.

They also give access to alot of Amazon Original content. I'm currently binging "Bosch", and am extremely impressed with it thus far. "The Grand Tour", which is the "Top Gear" crew but not having to deal with the Nanny BBC pansies, is also a blast and open for Prime members.

It's worth it to me, and far cheaper than Cable or Satellite, and I get to chose what I watch and when.

I'm not overly thrilled with Amazon's political ideals, but they seem far more middle of the road than say YouTube, or Google, and any pay service they might offer. I can give them credit for allowing a diversity of ideas, which is the only diversity that matters. So in that respect, I give them two big thumbs up.

Anyone on the fence about it, should give it a shot just to check it out. You won't be out an arm and a leg.

Yea so what, they can have a Trillion members and I will still not be interested. :O:

I'm on the thirty day free trial.

Nothing in it of interest for me. And it would also help to create a major player too strong for orindray competitors to survive. Competition needs competitors.

As a matter of fact I have made it a habit to order a lot of things NOT at Amazon anymore. Not because their service is bad, it isn't, in fact its exceptionally good. I just want them not to be so powerful and influential as they already are. And their dark sides show in the way they abuse and exploit market place traders.

Love my Prime.

Movies, music, and 2 day shipping. I have a student prime account (legitimately), and it's half price. Considering I do probably 90% of my shopping through amazon, Im ahead on the shipping costs alone.

Plus I can stream or download from their video service.

Jeff Bezos Boosts Fortune by $12 Billion in a Day on Amazon Surge

Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, got a lot richer Thursday.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...on-sales-surge




Amazon to Increase U.S. Prime Annual Fee to $119, Up From $99

http://variety.com/2018/digital/news...rs-1202789280/

After 30 day trial I will cancel

I have been a prime member since first offering. Amazon has saved me thousands of hours in time not needing to go to the stores for items. In fact, the only store I frequent is the hardware store. Further, I'm offered many choices with associated reviews. I receive items in 1 day most times as I'm near the distribution center. Usually no more than 2 days. I watch videos and download music. Amazon is a wonderful time saving business for me. I really don't know how I lived without it.

I just saw that and was wondering how this would change things for Prime people. I had thought about it, but I can afford to wait. :yep:

Absolutely worth the expense for me. Amazon saves me time, money on gas, wear and tear on a car going from store to store and helpful reviews that keep me from buying products that just don't work as claimed. The multitude of choices for each product is unprecedented. When I need something my first thought is Amazon. 1-2 days later it is at my door. Plus, I get videos to watch.

I buy from Amazon no less than 1-3 times a week and it is certainly integrated into my life thus the increase in the fee I'm ok with.

I've had Prime for several years now. When it was $79 it was well worth it. When it went up to $99 it was still sort of worth it. $119? I live on a fixed income and as far as I'm concerned they just priced themselves out of the market.

I mostly go through Amazon just to support SubSim. I'll continue to compare prices and buy through Amazon when they have the best prices, but I doubt I'll have Prime again.

Sounds like a horror story by Ray Bradbury to me. Reminds me of "The Predestrian". Be sure they don't save you your life, wear and tear on bones, muscles and angles, and all that oxygen spent.

And when ordinary small local shops and businesses go out of business, the towns necessarily must - and do - start looking deserted. Its a sight to be seen everywhere in Germany. This started to worry me some years ago when I realised that more and more items of ordinary life I must not look for at town anymore, for I knew there would not be a store selling them anymore anyway. It was then when I started to reduce by Amazon buying.

Also, dirty it is how they play with their marketplace sellers. First they invite third parties to advertise and sell via Amazon, and cash ion that, then they analyse this market evaluation done by marketplace sellers for them (and mind you, Amazon gets the data plus a fee), and when they realise some marketplace seller has a profitable idea or an itekm Amazon cpouold profitably sell itself, they start to make life miserable for him (for example by delaying payment transfers), and start to establish that business and product themselves - outpricing the marketplace seller.

Thats as dirty as it can become. I would never use Amazon marketplace, if I were a business man. Its as if I would ask them to be allowed paying them a fee for abusing and finally executing me.

For cutsomer, Amazion is nice and well, its great, yes. But behind the curtain, its establishing a market-dominating power that distorts the whole market and in the end, if we allow it to go that far, will prevent free market from functioning. Depending on just one or two main contractors for your vital needs, never is a good thing. It makes you extremely vulnerable, and weak - and them horrifyingly strong and powerful.

Like anything else, it depends on the customer.

We save more in shipping then the cost of the membership so it is still a good deal for us.

Anything extra like the streaming stuff is just icing on the cake.

Just that there are longterm social and economical follow-on costs. And I am not about the rainforest.

Nice summary, I feel the same way. One thing cannot be ignored, Bezos certainly had a vision, stuck to it, and knew where he was going with Amazon.


That's true. Amazon is so big and smart now, it sucks all the O2 out of the room for many other vendors. But like Warhawk said, it's pretty hard to justify spending more time and cash to fight it. I will buy from non-Amazon frequently, when it's close in price.

I like to shop locally when ever I can. But one of the issues is that a lot of local stores either don't have what i am looking for or only have one or two options for me to choose from.

With sites like Amazon, I can pretty much always find what I am looking for and will have often many options to choose from. I might not always get the best price, but I do feel that I am getting the most choice.

When it comes to buying presents for people around the country, few things beat Amazon. Local shipping and gift wrapping makes this old Uncle happy.

That and the return policy keeps me using Amazon.

The only thing I won't buy from Amazon is books, which strange as Amazon started out as a bookseller. But we have a new B&N close by and I want to give them all my book business.

Thats pretty much how I handle it with many product categories. I give a local shop - that is no chain shop! - a certain bonus, if they are friendly, but price differences I accept to my disadvanatge of course have an upper limit.

Stores belonging to some major shop chain - if that is the term used in English - that has flattened small family-run shops themselves in the past, I am not hesitent to "abuse". Why should I listen to their complaints about Amazon if they themselves have done with smaller shops like Amazon does with themselves now?

Books I almost always order in one or two local book shops now, both independent and not belonging to a book shop chain.

What I increasingly order via Amazon, however, are food specialities that are almost impossible to buy locally. Conimex Ketjap Manis is impossible to get in Germany now, if you can get Conmimex outside Holland at all, back in the 80s we could buy it in every supermarket over here. Italian Tipo 00 flour by Antimo Caputo for making Pizza dough and baking Ciabatta bread. Semola di Grano Duro. A certain - and expensive - Aceto Balsamico, the flask with 250ml costs over 40 Euros. Greek olive oil by Jordan. Roasted sesam oil by Yeoh that even Asian food traders over here often have in short supply, since it is the best. Stuff like that, that I cant get neither in local supermarkets nor on the weekly public market or in a specialised delicatessen shop. There are some essential ingredients without which my kitchen simpy does not run anymore. :)

The Corporation Wars? :03:

Here in the UK Tesco is king of the supermarkets but could be about to be toppled as the No.2 and 3 Sainsbury's and Asda are on the verge merging.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43933517

Maybe Tesco can merge with amazon. :03:

Always buy locally if the price is not overly excessive but when online I have an admitted tendancy to compare like for like and go for the cheapest....every little helps.

I believe that is called being a Capitalist. :up:

As a Capitalist, i want to get the "mostest" while paying the "leastest". I have a difficult time sacrificing either or both to "localism".

Where a local store can excel is in service. Unfortunately, a lot of our local stores don't seem to care about that either and i feel that this lack of service attitude is a larger cause of small businesses failing than mega corporations.

I found this especially true with our local photography store. It is too bad, but the have communicated clearly that they don't want my business, but Adorama does want my business and gives me excellent, albeit, remote service.