- 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.
Archive link: https://archive.ph/3M27c
You’re kidding right? Are there actually people thinking they just can’t live without Amazon Prime? Seriously? Fuck even if you HAVE to order something off of Amazon, which you absolutely don’t HAVE to do, you don’t fuckin need prime just for… what… slightly faster shipping?
Free shipping, but at that point you should question why you are buying so much from amazon in the first place
$25 gets you free shipping anyways unless they changed it!
Might be 35 bucks now. Can’t remember.
It’s not really how much you buy, but how conveniently. I also thought it was silly to pay Prime, until pandemic. Then I discovered it’s silly to goto stores.
I go to the grocery once a week, and very rarely goto other stores. Al those trips to Walmart and target and kohls and those horror that are malls, just gone. I save all that time and all that driving. I want free shipping on my shampoo, for example, because it saves me a trip to the store. If I had to wait until I had $35 worth of stuff to get free shipping, I’d probably end up with anther trip to a store for emergency items: my time, my car costs.
Granted I also get things like shampoo in larger sizes than my local store Carries, so arguably more efficient in many ways. In some ways, it’s like Costco: why waste a trip to get a bar of soap or two, when i can get a 16 pack and just not worry about it?
but… if you really like your shampoo, why not buy $35 worth at once?
Yeah, it was a bad example and my comment was a bit contradictory, I actually do get larger quantities that I can’t easily get at a physical store. It’s not that I like it so much, as that I want to get it with minimal thinking and I don’t want to have to worry about it again as long as possible.
The point is both that I save an emergency trip to the store and can buy in more bulk than the store provides.
Prime is worth it for overnight delivery, regardless of the value I buy - no need to wait until a list piles up not to buy in more quantity than I’m comfortable investing in
On the contrary, during the great formula shortage of 2021/2022, Amazon Prime and the recurring delivery option was the only way I was able to get formula for my twins. Speed was important l, but so was Amazon’s huge supply chain.
Since then, we live in a remote place and getting some stuff just isn’t possible at the one store near us. Amazon is really one of the best ways to get things we need. Now, of course, I hate them, but I also hate Walmart and don’t really have choices beyond those or a gas station convenience store.
Then imagine living without Amazon altogether… impossible
Prime used to mean something. Guaranteed 2 day shipping with no minimum for no extra charge. $5 for next day shipping. Then next day disappeared. Then the 2 day guarantee disappeared. Then delivery times were in the 3-5 day range for most things. Then, in my university town, around the time of students returning to school for terms it would be 1-2 weeks. I’m not paying an ever increasing annual fee for that.
Back then, Amazon was the shit. My GF at the time and I cancelled our Costco membership because shipping was good and selection was better.
Now, Amazon is shit. And now back to buying in-store whenever possible. And got a Costco membership again.
I have a running cart in my Amazon and about once every two weeks I’ll hit the purchase button.
Just not worth it anymore.
I thought this meant the writer is forgoing Amazon as a service completely.
Cause that would be something worth reading. Not these first world problems ffs
The crap people write nowadays.
It’s surprisingly easy to live without any subscription. I don’t have any. If you’re tech savvy you can either block most ads that subscriptions give you, or bypass the service entirely and get free premium or just dl videos/music etc.
And as the services get worse there’s little incentive to actually keep a subscription. Netflix is becoming pretty dogshit for example.
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Lmao it’s surprisingly easy to live without AMAZON.
Dude… We’re trying to live without Amazon and this guy is just giving up prime??? What a martyr…
Christ, we cancelled it a month ago and I feel so fucking stupid. Stupid that we had it for so long for… what? I don’t need anything so quickly that a couple of days delivery makes a difference. Food, water, heat, somewhere to sleep are things I need on a strict schedule. Knock off earbuds and some silicone molds for frozen shot glasses can absolutely wait. AND IT’S STILL FREE SHIPPING, you just add to cart and buy once you hit $35.
It’s a joke unless you need something overnighted or next day and as a bonus - it will usually be improperly packaged and delivered with malice.
Prime Video catalogue is a pale shadow of what it used to be. Exclusives have dwindled. Now they want 3 bucks for no ads on top of paying for Prime? Naw.
Counterfeits are everywhere. That’s what Aliexpress is for (half joking). Frequently have to check the manufacturer’s site when pricing or picture seems dubious.
One delivery driver commandeers our neighbors’ empty driveway, swings the back doors open and blasts shitty pop music at full volume while fumbling through deliveries for 30 minutes every other day.
Buying direct is now often the same price more or less and you can get in a week anyway for negligible shipping price. Or even free shipping if you spend x amount.
So we cancelled too.
Yup, it’s so easy now to buy direct. Same price, same shipping, no counterfeits. One of the things that was really annoying me about Amazon was how often my “new” item was so obviously already opened and returned, often with parts missing. I cancelled and haven’t looked back.
We just dropped Prime a month or so ago and I can’t see ever getting it again.
Wow, never thought I’d see a headline like this. I’ve never had Amazon prime except for the free month trial. I had no idea it was such a problem for others that there are articles written about it.
I think what a lot of people are missing in this thread is that not everyone has access to convenient physical stores and many people do have good reasons to want faster shipping.
For example, young families who don’t live near a Walmart. When you realize you need a few things for the kid, it can be pretty tough to pack them up and drive however far to the store that may or may not have what you need. If they do have it, you aren’t going to get reviews or many options.
My recent prime purchases have included bottle brushes, a crib mattress protector, a replacement remote for our sound bar (dog ate it), and a cheap car camera to check the baby since he started daycare last week and I’m completely paranoid about my ADHD brain leaving him in a hot car and killing him.
Did any of these need to be prime purchases? I guess not but you can see how I would want them sooner rather than later.
Walmart near me didn’t have any good car cameras in my price range.
The sound bar remote was online only and was required for us to watch TV since our TV speaker doesn’t work.
The bottle brushes were just convenient.
The mattress protector could have waited but would have been a gamble on ruining our very expensive crib mattress. This could have been a a Walmart purchase for sure though.
I’m not saying these were life or death purchases. They weren’t and people got by just fine before Amazon. But does the convenience and reliability outweigh the monthly prime cost? For us, yes. And I admit we have become pretty dependent on it.
Thanks for explaining this. I’m a childless guy living in the UK in a big city, close to many big markets and specialty stores, so I guess my experience is totally different than what you’re describing and you gave a few pretty good reasons why there’s such a gap in how much the convenience of Prime is worth for someone like you and someone like me. I guess the article just isn’t aimed at people like me.
I can’t live with Amazon, so I NEVER use them out of principle.
‘surprisingly easy’ is laughable because I have never lived with Amazon prime
Exactly, it’s like people are addicted to Amazon, like they need therapy to get out of an addiction.
Amazon sucks, it’s a toxic company, just don’t do it!
I been anti-amazon for about 5 years now.
Nothing lost or needed. If I need something I go to local store to find it.
My only issue with Amazon is tools that uses their cloud services and Twitch. But since last December I decided to switch to YouTube with ad blocker.
Planning on de-google and de-microsoft within the next two years.
There’s weird stuff I can’t find anywhere else or they’re on sites that I don’t trust my payment info with. Otherwise, planning ahead takes care of shipping times.
I use privacy.com to guard my actual payment data. Works amazibg
Just be aware of the Plaid issue!
There’s weird stuff I can’t find anywhere else or they’re on sites that I don’t trust my payment info with.
This have a simple solution: generate a virtual credit card with just the amount you need for the transaction.
Prime is a waste of money.
I agree. Unsubscribed to Prime and Netflix. I’m not missing anything. Good riddance.
