It is surprisingly easy to not order things off of Amazon, too.
True, you do have to be wary of drop shippers on eBay though. A handful of times down I order something on eBay only to get it in Amazon packaging and with an Amazon gift packing slip - then I look up the item name on the gift receipt and find that the Amazon listing was cheaper and the eBay seller just skimmed off the top.
I really wish there was a non-profit or coop or public utility like replacement for amazon and ebay. Yeah you need a website and infrastructure and warehouses but this is becoming so fundamental to our economy that it’s not good to let this “rent seeking” to continue. Make it a fair marketplace that is democratically controlled and optimizes for customers and sellers and workers instead of for shareholders. There is no need for amazon or ebay to exist.
Similar to paypal, all they did was make wire transfers easy. At least I can finally wire money immediately in the EU without extra costs making paypal and their tax on the internet economy superfluous (damn lazy banks!).
Governments ignoring ecommerce as a vital infrastructure has created these completely useless plutocrats.
PS: Sorry for the tangential rant lol
The idea that people think it would be difficult to live without an Amazon Prime subscription absolutely blows my mind. Are y’all really that hooked on buying stupid shit and getting it as fast as possible?
I don’t understand some people who swear by it. If there’s really something I need by the next day, I probably need it the same day and will just get it myself at a store.
Where I live, getting anything at a store besides basic food isn’t a thing. You can’t find ANYTHING at Walmart. Hardware stores are the last semblance of being able to find stuff in a store in person like the olden days. If it wasn’t for the fact contractors buy entire houses worth of shit for “pro delivery” , even those would stop existing.
I bought a lot on Amazon, never paid shipping. I can just wait a week for it to show up. Only suckers pay for Prime.
If it’s something you need right now, go to a store and buy it.
Only if you make over 3 purchases per month. That’s what it came out for me when I checked if I should get Prime. That’s when you get the cheaper option by paying for the whole year. I might only have 3 purchases a month once or twice a year, so definitely not worth it for me.
That theory works if you’re only buying things you need. I know people that buy stuff they don’t really need and/or never use because it was cheap on Amazon.
I think it’s also different internationally? For eg. in India, I already use credit cards, but there’s a lifetime free credit card for Amazon that allows you to earn up to 5%. But without Prime, I earn only 3%. Ofc, this is only worthwhile because I already shop from Amazon without Prime and without the credit card, admittedly, but in my scenario it’s far more worthwhile to have Prime than to not, because it pays for itself within a month or two even without me consuming a single piece of media from Amazon (whether it’s Prime Video or Prime Music or Audible, etc).
Idk if this exists in every country where Prime exists, but I assume they’re just trying to gain more market share in India so it’s an option here. 🤷🏾♂️ But it certainly makes it worthwhile for me in my specific case.
I stopped Amazon Prime because it when from being “your package will be at your house in two days” to “your package might leave our facility in two days and arrive to you some indeterminate time later.”
I also feel like anytime I get on Amazon now, I might as well be on Alibaba, but it’s 10x the price. It’s hard to find good things because there are so many cheap factory direct products with smashed-my-face-against-the-keyboard brand names. There’s a Jansport backpack for sale, but you have to sort through all the bags from JDOEBG, AHIXBX, and PRJAGG first.
This is the reason I hemmed over my subscription for a few years, and after they announced they were adding ads to Prime Video, that was the final straw. I’ve ordered maybe 1 or 2 things without a subscription since, but I’m really happy with how much I’m able to get much faster and better elsewhere.
Since they added commercials to prime video we have been considering dropping prime. Video was really the only thing keeping us lately.
Was one of the people who dropped it after the commercials were added. Started using our library instead and haven’t really missed the video streaming. I’ll log in via a browser every so often and get offered a free month or week of prime and immediately cancel. Was able to access prime day deals without paying for anything.
I use Kanopy through my library for free streaming. They have quite a bit of a selection too! Also there’s Freegal music streaming, like Spotify, but free through the library.
Hey OP I did not know we had a frugal community. Thank you for your post now I can post there. …no sarcasm.
OMG YES. I canceled my subscription 2-3 years ago and I’ve never once thought about resubscribing!!! Highly recommend. 99% of the time I still get free shipping because I exceed the $30 threshold. If I don’t, then I’ll just add an item to the cart and wait until I need something else. If it’s something urgent, then I do pay for the shipping, but it’s still way cheaper than $139 per year. Bro, it’s fine.
I don’t care about Prime Video or Music, so for me it 1000000% made sense to cancel.
I hate that Amazon tries to trick me into signing up for Prime on every purchase, but that just pisses me off even more and makes it less likely for me to consider signing up.