Amazon Might Raise Prime By Up To $40?

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Holy cow, a $40 price hike? Then again, considering the sheer amount of stuff I order from Amazon every year, Prime would still be a bargain for me.

CFO Tom Szkutak said growing transportation costs may cause the online retail giant to add between $20 to $40 to the subscription fee. Prime -- which offers free, two-day shipping on certain items and access to Amazon's Prime Instant Video library and Kindle lending library -- currently costs $79 a year. He said the subscription service, has become very popular in the last nine years. Prime shipments have grown from 1 million to 19 million units, according to Szkutak.
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While I like amazon I will not pay an increase for Prime. My local B&M's have most of the same stuff for the same price and is about 5 mins away.
 
I love Prime, but even if it cost $100, then that's a bit too much for me. The good thing is they are building two factories here (Lakeland and Tampa, FL), so I won't need to have Prime as I'm 20 minutes from the Lakeland area and 45 minutes from Tampa, but I'll have to pay sales tax now. $40 increase is crazy.
 
don't like it.. but the amount I purchase there... it'd still be worth it. It will cause me to take off my blinders when it comes to other sellers... like I did when I migrated off newegg for computer parts.
 
It's not growing transportation costs, just like Netflix and pretty much every other company trying to push an agenda they sell it at a loss or a too good to be true price to gain traction. then when enough people are in they jack up the price or reduce the services.

If you use all of amazon prime and ship a lot it is of course worth it. But I have my doubts about how long amazon will be the great company it is now.

My guess is they were targeting the $99 price point all along and the $20 - 40 will make investors happy and when they announce it at the $20 people will say oh well that's not that bad.

Truth be told its still not bad, I get similar functions to Netflix for about the same price and the shipping and free books. But its only good if you actually use all those features. If you casually buy from all different places its not worth it.
 
magnetik said:
don't like it.. but the amount I purchase there... it'd still be worth it. It will cause me to take off my blinders when it comes to other sellers... like I did when it took a while to migrate off newegg for computer parts.
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That's my position as well.
 
I'd still buy it for $100, probably. It helps if you share your extra Prime invites with family/friends and split the cost.

A $40 increase would have me thinking about it, though. I don't even use the Instant Video and though I do use the Prime shipping a fair amount, the free Super Saver shipping would almost always be fine for me.
 
That is still a steal. $120 for the year and you get the Amazon videos. I primarily use Amazon for all my purchases. (except when the egg beats the price with a slickdeals front pager) Hoverhound baby!

Anyways, that breaks down to $10.00 a month. The comedy central lineup alone is worth that a month for me........ Now those punkass muthas need to allow for a chromecast app.
 
$40 increase would be a non-issue for me. The wife buys so much stuff from Amazon that they lose money on shipping even if they raise prices. Also, the Prime streaming video and Kindle library is awesome.
 
Anyone suspect crushing of net neutrality plays a role in this. Suppose ISP's are already charging premium for streaming content providers?
 
id reconsider renewing if it were to increase. I've actually curtailed my purchasing as of late. and never really cared for their streaming service.

what I'd really hope for is a tiered setup: keep the same price but strip streaming OR keep both free 2 day shipping and streaming for the increased price
 
ml_paladin888 said:
id reconsider renewing if it were to increase. I've actually curtailed my purchasing as of late. and never really cared for their streaming service.

what I'd really hope for is a tiered setup: keep the same price but strip streaming OR keep both free 2 day shipping and streaming for the increased price
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Yeah, I would prefer to buy it without streaming if possible, since I never use it.
 
Sales tax kills the deal for me.... Havent ordered from Amazon all January and probably wont for awhile now. I can just buy in town and have it immediately.
 
I've been thinking about dropping Prime lately, and a $40 increase would make that decision extremely easy.

I've been buying less stuff in general lately so the savings on shipping just aren't a big selling point anymore (unless they went to free overnight).

Also the quality of Prime Video, for me, isn't that great. I can play Netflix and any other streaming service fine, but for whatever reason, Prime gives me a lot of pixelation and hitching. And Amazon trying to keep Prime Video tied to just their tablets and a select few other devices, makes it less convenient than Nexflix.
 
I hope this is US only...

Here in Canada prime is $80 and we don't get all the extras like video streaming, free books etc. Just the preferential shipping. Its already of questionable value, so an increase would instantly make me not renew next month... I was hoping some of the extras were going to come our way, but nada.
 
It is worth a ton more than it currently costs, for me. The amount I save in gas from not having to go pick stuff up that I order on Amazon covers it. However, the true value for me is the convenience and time. I'd pay a lot more than what they are asking for now, and what they are proposing to change it to. I absolutely get my money's worth from them...and I don't even use their video service.
 
I'd be out if they do that. I almost never watch prime instant videos since we already have netflix. The addition of add on items has made prime a lot less desirable. I mean, it's like, $2 for a cable but it's add-on, or $6 for the same cable but it's prime. That's just stupid. Plus, their prices aren't always competitive. I would say that 9/10 of the tech deals I see that I am interested in are on newegg because of discount codes or rebates that Amazon doesn't match.

I guess if you can still share it with family then I could find people to split the cost with.
 
Am I the only one who doesn't get prime? Most stuff I order is free shipping. If it's not, Ebay will have it with free shipping. I don't get the benefits of Prime.
 
Ashbringer said:
Am I the only one who doesn't get prime? Most stuff I order is free shipping. If it's not, Ebay will have it with free shipping. I don't get the benefits of Prime.
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The other point of Prime are the video streams but they are very similar Netflix.
 
Still on the student pricing. So 40 increase would just be the normal price it is now. I don't how long you can stay on the student pricing though.
 
I'd swallow the price increase better if they ditched the 'add on item' garbage.
 
boo, don't do that. i love my free shipping and video access
 
1. Stop building stupid drones

2. Hire a decent logistics person to better handle your current transportation carriers. I managed a decrease for the next 3 years with a certain non-brown transport company.

3. You just started charging sales tax (well tomorrow) and then you want to raise Prime by $40 annually.

It's about time you looked internally at your operations and get aligned. It's been a fun ride but the next Amazon is just a website away.
 
techie81 said:
While I like amazon I will not pay an increase for Prime. My local B&M's have most of the same stuff for the same price and is about 5 mins away.
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Consider yourself lucky then. Local B&Ms here don't even have most of the stuff on amazon and if they do it's considerably more expensive, to the point where even if you don't have prime and pay for shipping it's still cheaper on Amazon.

I don't order enough stuff to even justify Prime at its current cost though, let alone after a $40 price hike. Amazon still has some great prices even without prime though. Virtually every computer component I've bought in the last few years was cheaper on Amazon than on Newegg.
 
Don't get me wrong, I like Prime, but for the standard Prime, I think $70-80 is more than fair. With the volume Amazon moves, they should be able to not jack up the prices. The thing is, they already have a way to get some extra cash - open up PrimeFresh to more locales. PrimeFresh costs around $250/year, but gives you FREE overnight shipping, promises same day delivery even on sunday in some cases, and also allows both 1) buying a wide variety of groceries from both distributors and local stores - for me, having Organic food for good prices is worthwhile, and 2) Ordering carry out from restaurants that don't normally deliver to your area.

You want people to pay more for Prime? Give them a reason to do so. Right now, if you don't live in Seattle, LA, or San Francisco, Fresh isn't an option. Hell, even if they can't do the whole local shops and grocery thing everywhere yet, how about a Prime Plus that costs $150-175 and gives you free overnight delivery, same day delivery for a couple of bucks even on sunday, and more digital content as a bonus?
 
King Icewind said:
Still on the student pricing. So 40 increase would just be the normal price it is now. I don't how long you can stay on the student pricing though.
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I believe Amazon Student Prime is 4 years from the date it starts. I'm on my last year and they informed me Prime will increase in cost the next time I renew, which is in August. I will seriously give it some thought if the full price goes up $40. I know I order a lot from there, but with the addition of having to pay sales tax (9.75%) now plus the increased Prime fee, I might just drop prime and go with the standard 3-5 day shipping. Well, for those items I am unable to find elsewhere.
 
It's already a difficult decision each time it's time to resubscribe since there's nothing I buy that I couldn't wait more than a few days to receive. It's purely a luxury. However, if they jack up the price, it'd be a no-brainer to keep that money in my pocket.
 
There videos mirror Netflix so if they jack it up ill wait longer to receive my stuff and dump the service.
 
I tried Prime for a month, none of my packages got here on time and the video section was a total unorganized mess where it seemed like everything was still for rent or to buy and the free stuff was buried.
 
I place, on average, 70-80 orders a year with Amazon. This will still be a bargain to me. Sucks, but I much prefer ordering online where I can price shop and not have to deal with driving to the store.
 
I like Prime, but I can live without it. Most everything I order is expensive enough to qualify for free shipping. Sure, it's not 2-day shipping, but what's another day or two longer?
 
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