Posts: 5521
Joined: 4/1/2004 From: The Zone™ Status: offline
Now that you mention it, I received yesterday a letter from Amazon by regular mail. It basically says that now that I've got the prime member thing I can blah blah blah and blah blah blah. Only irrelevant small detail is I never chose that option (I can wait, not interested in this prime thing). Greedy dishonest trolls. All they want is separate the client from his wallet. Like vulgar thieves.
They seem to assume their clientele hasn't changed since the days of gaudy caravans, organ grinders and chimps. There's money to be made if you really want some more.
I was going to post something, but I'm afraid it will be very hard to make any points without the post or the thread eventually becoming too political for the forum.
Posts: 5104
Joined: 8/8/2013 From: Third rock from the Sun. Status: offline
quote:
ORIGINAL: TulliusDetritus
Now that you mention it, I received yesterday a letter from Amazon by regular mail. It basically says that now that I've got the prime member thing I can blah blah blah and blah blah blah. Only irrelevant small detail is I never chose that option (I can wait, not interested in this prime thing). Greedy dishonest trolls. All they want is separate the client from his wallet. Like vulgar thieves.
They seem to assume their clientele hasn't changed since the days of gaudy caravans, organ grinders and chimps. There's money to be made if you really want some more.
Trolls.
I pay once a year. First few years it was $99. It's about $107 now. I get movies, tv shows, documentary films, free two day shipping, even if it's on a Saturday or Sunday. Do you know how much most businesses charge for Saturday or Sunday delivery? No minimum order amount. Lots of other benefits. I have ordered a lot from them. I get more usage out of them than my money would buy anyplace else. I did save money by disconnecting my cable TV when I got Prime membership. But everyone has to decide if it's worth the money to them. Oh, and I have NEVER gotten any advertising from them through snail mail.
As far as the vulgar thieves sentence. You have just described every merchant of every sort on every part of the planet.
Posts: 5521
Joined: 4/1/2004 From: The Zone™ Status: offline
quote:
ORIGINAL: Lobster I pay once a year. First few years it was $99. It's about $107 now.
I buy a lot from Amazon. But this is 90% due to my post-stroke (recovering) and a 10% things that you would NOT get without them: ie very tasty high quality pickles from Germany As I said, there's no hurry, I can wait. I disagree with this new trend (artificially created by this cyber world): "I want something and I wanted it yesterday!". Just like I think you have to be mad to pay 800 or 1.000 € for a bloody telephone.
It's all I will say as I will be following Yogi's advice
As much as my family uses our Prime benefits, it's really a bargain. We order stuff for the family business all the time, and free two day shipping is insane compared to most places that will charge $15-30 at least. We had a large printer die, and a new one cost over a grand plus hefty shipping fee from the official company. Found a refurbished one on Amazon for $200, had it up and running within 48 hours, free shipping. You can't beat that.
Not to mention all the movies, shows, music, and other stuff you get included.
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Joined: 6/29/2002 From: San Antonio, TX Status: offline
We've had Amazon Prime for years. It's a useful service for our family and well worth the $100 or so that we pay annually.
Those that don't wish to subscribe do not have to do so. Amazon is pretty transparent in their pricing, so-like everything else in this world-if you don't like it, you're welcome to take your money elsewhere. I'll forego my anti-anti-big diatribe in the interest of thread peace.
With Prime you can save literally hundreds of dollars around Christmas time with the discounted merchandise. My daughter was feeling domestic last year and she wanted a super sewing machine with lots of functions for different projects. It was $410 - $420 at best buy and the other stores. Only $250 on Amazon and free shipping too. Saved $150 on just one gift. Overall, compared to store prices I saved close to a thousand dollars with Prime and Amazon last Christmas. That more than makes up for the $100 dollar annual fee and I didn't have to deal with crowded malls and crazy shoppers. That's probably worth it alone, tbh.
But no, I do not agree with separate pricing for same products depending on personal income level. If a person can't afford something then that is just how life is. I know this personally as do many of you.
With that logic, Jaguar should lower the price of their cars to better suit my income level. Wishful thinking that will ever happen though.
< Message edited by JReb -- 6/8/2017 5:57:54 PM >
_____________________________
My shrink says I have anger management and conflict resolution issues....and I'LL FIGHT ANYBODY THAT DISAGREES!
If I were to purchase a lot of stuff from Amazon, Prime would make sense. But at my age I already own nearly everything I will ever want or need. So for me Prime would be only marginally beneficial and not worth the $100+ annual membership fee.
Posts: 4688
Joined: 5/2/2004 From: Washington, DC Status: offline
I've read about this policy in other publications and want to mention two factors which provide additional context: 1) As Amazon has been rolling out same day delivery, for business reasons it focused on more densely-populated, high income areas. As a result, the service was not available in many low income areas, and so the company was accused of racism. This program is probably in part a reaction to such criticism. 2) It is well documented that many low-income areas are "food deserts", or more accurately "retail deserts"--in other words, there are no real supermarkets or other retail outlets for neighborhood residents to shop--only fast food, convenience stores, etc. Therefore, especially as Amazon expands into grocery delivery, Prime could offer a real service to these residents--and a real market for Amazon--if the residents can afford the membership fee.
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Joined: 6/29/2002 From: San Antonio, TX Status: offline
quote:
ORIGINAL: 76mm
2) It is well documented that many low-income areas are "food deserts", or more accurately "retail deserts"--in other words, there are no real supermarkets or other retail outlets for neighborhood residents to shop--only fast food, convenience stores, etc. Therefore, especially as Amazon expands into grocery delivery, Prime could offer a real service to these residents--and a real market for Amazon--if the residents can afford the membership fee.
Good rationale provided, 76mm.
Just a word about the 'food deserts' USDA has promulgated to feather its own nest. They've been largely debunked. What do I mean? Note USDA's own conclusion (buried in their own in-house pub), which they didn't bother to redact or retract publicly.
That doesn't mean that companies like Alphabet or Amazon don't fancy themselves 'social justice warriors' and promulgate change where none is really necessary.
I personally believe that Amazon is not doing this out of the kindness of their own heart, but as a cold and calculated means of clawing back market share from Walmart. Walmart has a very high brand utilization amongst the lower economic quartiles-much moreso than Amazon. Any inroads Amazon could claim in the name of social good would be money well spent for Amazon.
Posts: 87
Joined: 12/26/2007 From: Bluffton, South Carolina Status: offline
Amazon Prime provides a great service at a reasonable price. It's cheaper than Netflix and provides similar high quality content - including a large amount of educational content as well. It also provides a number of free books every month for download to a tablet, while giving you free 2 day shipping to boot.
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Joined: 9/12/2000 From: NY, USA Status: offline
I have no feelings on this one way or another but just wanted to pass along what was said on CNBC when this was announced. The talking head commented that statistically people spend more with Amazon Prime and that therefore Amazon,s sales numbers would increase as these people would spend on things they really didn't need driving them further into poverty. I guess only time will tell.
I just don't like the reason that because I work, pay a lot of taxes, paid for my own education I have to pay more while being a loyal customer who spends over $3-4 thousand. I would have preferred everyone get the discount. What happens when the ebt holders buy to much and besides, it's taxpayer money. I am not going to get anywhere with this, I just like the government to stop wasting our money
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