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Cancel Amazon Prime [2021] (archive.ph)

submitted 1 year ago by trashhalo to c/technology

71 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Amazon Prime is a remarkable success but also dystopian. It has made convenience and speed the norm, habituating consumers to buy more products. Prime's flywheel effect - where more customers lead to more data and scale which attracts more customers - has fueled Amazon's dominance. Prime subscribers spend twice as much and Amazon's value has multiplied 97 times since 2005. While canceling Prime may not hurt Amazon, it can benefit local businesses by gaining a new customer. However, Prime has rewired how people think about what is possible to obtain and how fast, making a Prime-free life unimaginable for many.

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[–] lorez@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Nah, it’s too convenient and I don’t live in a big city so the things I need aren’t sold here.

[–] middlemuddle 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Do you need Prime for that? I'm not in your same situation, but I used to be very reliant on Prime shipping. Since I cancelled Prime, I still sometimes buy stuff from Amazon, but I realized I don't have a need to get things so rapidly. Free shipping is still an option on most items, it just takes a few more days. When they're small items that don't qualify for free shipping, then I just add it to my cart and wait until I have something else to add that makes it cross that free shipping threshold. And I also generally don't feel the need to use Amazon as much since so many other companies offer free shipping these days.

In my circle, I've seen that people are just so expectant of rapid shipping, but they don't actually need it. I've learned how instant gratification isn't actually valuable to me, but I know that's difficult for a lot of people to accept.

[–] lorez@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

I mean, I don't order stuff every day but when I do it's cos I need it fast. I use Prime for games and videos too. I dunno about the rest of the planet but here in Italy, especially in a small 65k souls town, the situation is not so good.

[–] Snipe_AT@lemmy.atay.dev 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Our conversation on a different post made me check your post history. And now this post has me considering canceling Amazon Prime. Ripple effects are weird.

[–] middlemuddle 1 points 1 year ago

Haha, that's a fun little coincidence. Benefits of the federated communities being smaller for the time being.

[–] Limeade 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I live in a rural area and gave up Amazon shortly before the pandemic. I switched to ordering items directly from the manufacturers' websites. Giving up Amazon doesn't mean giving up the rest of the internet, though admittedly some manufacturers link you right back to Amazon instead of running their own separate storefront, so I have to look for another.

[–] lorez@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

All considered with Prime I end up saving money. Not considering their Video and Games services. I have no brand loyalty, if someone comes around with a better value proposition I'd take it but for now Amazon is where I prefer to buy. Oh, I forgot to mention their return and refund policies. Just great