It’s Surprisingly Easy to Live Without an Amazon Prime Subscription
slate.com
- The author canceled their Amazon Prime subscription on a whim and realized they didn't really need it.
- Leaving Prime meant slower shipping but the author was happy to wait and still found the selection and delivery speed satisfactory.
- Many people love Prime for its fast shipping and convenience, but some readers expressed ambivalence and considered canceling.
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When I lived in NYC I could not even understand the appeal of Prime. Now that I live in the burbs I can’t live without it. I hate that I keep throwing money at Bezos but abusing their return policy is my little solace.
As somebody who lives on an island, I don’t understand the appeal of Amazon Prime. It’s a bogus product - if you live outside the mainland USA, you still get slower shipping speeds (usually like 1 week with Prime vs 2 weeks without it). It’s literally just an instant gratification thing - if I need something now, I’d just go out and buy it from a store instead of ordering it through Amazon or any online retailer.
Speaking from my experience in Australia, Prime is quite good for ad-hoc ordering.
For AUD6.99 a month I can order something that will usually turn up tomorrow morning, meaning that if I need a light bulb or a dishcloth or weed killer it's just a 30 second search with the app on my phone and I can get on with my day.
Compare that to:
eBay - free shipping, a week or so, "express" , 3 days and AUD12-18 per purchase.
Small online retailers - generally no free shipping, usually an Australia Post option at AUD12 or so that takes about 4-5 days, "express" via various couriers that takes that to 2-3 days for AUD18-30.
Large retailers - a week or more for delivery, AUD10-40 depending on size.
Me going down the shops and buying it myself - AUD60/hour labour and consumables, 30 minutes to an hour depending on what I'm buying and where from, AUD30-60.
Say what you want about their treatment of workers, from a consumer point of view Amazon's warehousing and delivery logistics are pretty effective.
Added edit: I don't live in a "rural" area (of which there are plenty in Australia), but I've sent stuff there using Prime and even then it's only an extra day or two on top.
Oh and there's Prime Video, and I've watched a few shows on it but it's not something that I particularly need or desire.
And sure , I could do without Prime. Just like I could do without brunch at a cafe once a week, or I could do without Netflix. But it provides a service that is generally cheaper and more convenient than the other options I have so..... I'll just continue to use it until it doesn't.
Yeah we've been fucked over for so long down here in Australia with overpriced everything from lack of competition that Prime is a legitimately good deal on many things.
It’s literally cheaper for me to order my fucking groceries delivered to my door than it is to go to a supermarket, yet the supermarkets still don't stop jacking up the prices. Aldi can sometimes work out cheaper, but you've got to hunt for their sales in the magazine each week so its not practical.
Im just glad to have rest of the world prices on many goods, sure it might not seem cheap to them but it is here.
Similar to the person who commented below. I live in a very rural area so it would be 10 bucks in gas just to drive to the closest Target to buy a pack of pens that I need for work the next day. And I know that I could just swing by on my way home from work and pick them up, but then it becomes a time thing. I mean my entire plan is to ditch Amazon prime after my current subscription expires. But man, there are some interesting things that have just become normalized with the convenience of getting things mailed to me that I'm totally going to miss. But fuck bezos
You can still get things mailed to you, with free shipping. Just order $35 of stuff at a time.
It just takes some forethought, some planning, and yeah maybe some "going without" for just a few days. But it can be done! Fuck Bezos.
Where I live it’s either Target or Amazon Prime. And give how crappy the Target selection is there’s no real choice.