The Reasons Why Amazon Prime Is Not Worth the Money
Last year Amazon bumped up the price of their Prime Membership from $119 to $139 annually. This got me thinking about the value of Prime, and do shoppers actually get enough out of it every year to make it worth the money? Does it make you overspend? Does it make you a lazy shopper? To those 3 questions I say No, Yes, Yes. Keep on reading to see why…
1. Amazon Already Has Free Shipping on $25+
I mean sure, the free 2-day shipping on all orders is a great incentive, but are you aware that Amazon already offers free shipping on $25+ orders?
For those who say, “But most of my purchases are under $25 and won’t qualify for free shipping.” To them I say make sure and combine orders until you reach the $25 threshold.
Have a little will-power on purchases and wait until you have several items you need to buy before you make an order.
The idea that you must have something in 2-days means you should probably be heading to your local Walmart, Target, or grocery store to buy it.
If you are a shopper that buys stuff online and always “Needs It NOW” and you’ll happily pay for expedited shipping to make it happen, then the Prime membership will definitely save you money, but I think this is a pretty small percentage of the population.
See Also: 6 Brilliantly Slick Ways to Get Amazon Prime for FREE
2. Prime Membership Makes You a Lazy Shopper
This may be the single biggest reason why the Amazon Prime membership is a bad buy.
Put simply, it makes many consumers flat out lazy.
They don’t compare pricing, they don’t haggle for a better price, they don’t take advantage of retailer’s price match policies, and they sure as heck don’t seek out coupons in order to get the best deal possible.
Instead they head straight to Amazon.com and click a single ‘Buy It Now’ button and viola!, it magically appears on their doorstep two days later.
Many shoppers at this point will make the argument that Amazon always has low prices so I don’t need to be a smart consumer. WRONG!
3. Amazon is a “Walmart-Wolf” in Sheep’s Clothing
When it comes to branding, Jeff Bezos and the marketing team at Amazon are absolute geniuses.
Over the years they have kept the brand “cool” in the eyes of consumers while the Walmarts of the world are seen as a company who ruins the little guy, pinches suppliers to death, and offers low paying jobs and sub-par health benefits.
One of the ways Amazon pulls this off is by not having a human face on the business.
There is not a minimum-wage earning senior citizen greeting you when you shop at Amazon and there’s very little written about the Amazon warehouse employees.
Employees toiling in the gigantic Amazon warehouses have very little voice and Amazon likes it that way.
See Half of Amazon’s warehouse workers are injured after just 3 years from Fortune to get a glimpse behind the Amazon curtain.
So why do I bring this up?
I don’t want you to just accept Amazon and the Prime membership as a alternative to the Walmart culture and way of doing business.
In the end, there is NOT a huge difference between the two.
4. Ridiculously Easy to Overspend
I’m going to get a little psychological with you for a minute.
I believe that many Amazon Prime members feel they need to shop with them as much as possible in order to recoup the membership fee.
I have talked with enough loyal Amazon shoppers over the years to confirm this phenomena.
So what is the outcome?
People buying everything under the sun from Amazon, often paying much more than they would at their local store, in order to get the free 2-day shipping.
Overspending up the wazoo.
I would also make the argument that the biggest reason for Amazon potentially raising the cost of the Prime membership is because they know people will end up buying more from them in an effort to make sure they “get their money’s worth”.
5. Prime 2-Day Shipping Doesn’t Always Happen
If you’re a Prime member, you probably noticed during the COVID pandemic that Amazon was having a hard time getting packages to your front door in their guaranteed 2-day window.
Well the pandemic ended a LONG time ago and Amazon is STILL having trouble in many areas of the country.
Yet they keep raising the price of Prime and people go along with it like sheep.
Don’t believe me? Check out the 900+ comments on the article I wrote about this Amazon shipping problem.
People are dropping Prime like a bad habit EVERY single day.
BONUS – Prime Membership Savings Tips:
If you’re on the fence about dropping the cash on an Amazon.com Prime membership, I have a few tips to minimize your costs.
1. Free 30 day trial. Amazon offers prospective members a free 30-day trial.
I typically recommend shoppers to sign-up for their trial just before Black Friday so they can do all their Christmas shopping and get free 2-day delivery.
Once you start your free trial, track your purchases and your savings in terms of shipping costs.
Add them up at the end of the month and times it by 12 to get a rough idea of your annual savings.
2. Get Amazon price alerts. If you end up (or already are) a Prime member you need to start using Amazon price alert services like CamelCamelCamel.com that allows you to create Amazon price trackers on products you want to purchase.
The free services will send you an email when the price of your item drops below a predetermined price point GUARANTEEING you always get the lowest price and don’t overspend.
Ask the Reader: Are you an Amazon Prime member? If so, do you think it’s worth the money or is it a terrible buy? Also, do you think it makes you overspend and not research the best price?
By Kyle James
I started Rather-Be-Shopping.com in 2000 and have become a consumer expert and advocate writing about out-of-the-box ways to save at stores like Amazon, Walmart, Target and Costco to name a few. I’ve been featured on FOX News, Good Morning America, and the NY Times talking about my savings tips. (Learn more)
Prior to Amazon. I had to get up at 9 am and shop 10 different stores and be lucky if I found half of what I needed. And even luckier if I made it home by 9:30 pm.
Sorry but Amazon prime is a whole lot more time saving and affordable than wasting gas. time, and frustration dealing with morons who are single handedly to blame for retail stores going out of business.
Yes Amazon has faults. But retail chains and small businesses shot themselves in the foot by bad rude customer service, refusal to invest more in retail online, And hanging on to outdated business methods.
I will gladly pay $119 for prime to avoid a headache and waste of time going to retail stores and spending 12 hours a day trying to buy basic groceries and products in my busy life. It is nice sometimes just to have a day to relax at the house and not have to worry about a shoot out at the mall or grocery store.
Prime is indeed useless. Its better than walmart etc. Only because you are more GUARANTEED to get what you asked for. Whereas with walmart 90% of your order is usually unavailable. However prime has fallen off with this shipping issue. Most people i know got prime because you could get your things delivered in 2days. Not anymore. It takes atleast 5 days. And they are using UPS to make deliveries. I hateee UPS. Another main reason i got prime is because i prefer the Amazon delivery. They atleast attempt to get you your package or offer a refund. UPS does no such thing. They wont even ring the bell. Ive caught them leaving the “sorry we missed u note” without trying to contact me at all. So yes. Prime is basically just as bad as all the other places now except you might actually get your order…horrible.
You don’t need Prime to shop on Amazon. One can still make that “all in one” order with or without Prime. And you’re trying to preach to FORMER Prime members. You act as if your orders are perfect. If you order that much, then you know full well that a large % of your purchases are damaged, defective, open box, or late. You know full well the convenience of ordering all in one doesn’t always happen and the orders get split up and delivered on different days.
I do appreciate I dont have to run to 5 different stores in one day, but Amazon is not the sole retailer responsible.
As much as I agree with you on most of what you say, the reason I use Amazon is I can find things here no one else carries. Like Levi women’s jeans in short sizes. Items stores
no longer carry and a verity of items. Yes,I am mad as hell about the increase in prime membership and waiting for 2 weeks for an item and it arrives in a box with an item I ordered 3 days ago. I would have liked Amazon to be upfront with customers when dropping the 2 day shipping. But for now I will just be a little more cautious shopper.
I compare pricing on most everything I buy and have found that Amazon is rarely a bargain. So… I use it for two things:
I also no longer just blindly pay them the $15 a month. I don’t use them that often anymore. I “pause” my membership for months at a time and am patient. If I REALLY need something they’ve got the best deal on, I’ll reactivate it for 1 – 2 months, then pause again.
Besides the “2 Day” delivery that is actually 5-6 as it takes them 3-4 days to “process,” the order… the price fixing/gouging is enraging. I say go check for “microfiber towels,” or some such. I find a pkg of 10 for $4.99 with Prime shipping. I copy the link to this product and go check, say, WalMart. When I return to the product on Amazon soon (sometimes minutes) after I find it’s now $6.99. They are trying to force you to impulse buy.
Agreed on Prime Video being useless. Unfortunately, I bought titles such as GoT all seasons back when… With membership paused, you can supposedly still watch these, but here’s the catch… Whether or not your membership is paused, I’m finding “title temporarily unavailable,” error messages are the norm, nothing will play as their server/bandwidth is insufficient.
I agree some people are lazy shoppers. However, many of the people I know still research prices online. The difference is we don’t waste time and gas driving all over.
And the benefit of Amazon is that you can read the reviews of other users so that if it is a quality product someone else has shared that info. I actually spend a lot more time shopping when I use Amazon because I read and research the reviews.
The tv is a complete waste.
Yes, wisdom says order what you need in a batch for financial wisdom.
Though, for those of us with health issues or special needs kids. It is a life saver to be able to order an item and get it in two days. Particularly when Walmart and Target 🎯 are time consuming.
I do agree. Amazon should have the same, big company destroying small company reputation as Walmart.
But at least with Amazon I don’t have to shop, stand in line, and then scan my own products. With Walmart I pay more and do more work. With Amazon. They still do the work, and even bring it to me.
Saving me a tremendous amount of stress and time.
I have to add, that if/when I do find the same/similar item on another site, I’m often battling quality issues and then return issues to boot! That’s been my experience, anyway, to add on to all that I agree with on your comment.
Glad the FTC is going after Amazon for their fraud and tricks with Prime membership. We paid the $139 for a Prime membership with the promise that it includes video streaming. Today, we logged in on the smart TV and were immediately suspended for “misuse of Amazon services.” This means we can’t log in to complain, and when we called we got nothing. So be ready to pay an annual fee and then get booted off Amazon for using that service. Will be filing a complaint with the FTC and the state attorney general so that others won’t have this happen.
How in the heck does that even happen??
You know what’s funny is that I’m sure at the time of this writing, the instant delivery stuff was still a reality. Now I’m paying $139 per year, and most everything still says you have to add up $25 to get free shipping. And half the time, the stuff they say you can get overnight or same day, arrives 5 days later. I don’t even know why they advertise same day, if they can’t do it!
There’s really not that much “must watch” stuff on Prime Video, and let’s be real: They’re trying to make back money on that terrible LOTR thing they spent way too much on, only to produce garbage.
The juice we could once squeeze from Prime is drying up these days. I’m SERIOUSLY thinking I’m done.
I gave up on Prime for this reason, just recently. Is it just non Prime members that now have to purchase $35 and up to get Prime shipping that shows up in 3 to 5 days??
Like most on this link, I am not happy with the increase in the cost of Prime, but like everything else, the cost has gone up. I like that I do not have to find sales associates in the store, and hope they help. Nor do I have to self-check out scan all my items and then bag them. Yes, the service can be slow but most times my items arrive on time and returns are a breeze with many locations available.
Prime videos are a bonus included along with the ebooks and music service. If we were to break down all the perks with a cost we’d probably find it a pretty good value, not the best but pretty good.
Now if the price increases another $20 I’d I too might cancel my membership.
Too many people associate “prime” with “shopping on Amazon”, as if not having prime suddenly makes it not possible to buy things. That’s the sorry trick amazon pulled on you.
Every single argument about “but I cant find this product”…yeah? Whats that go to do with Prime?
And also time to accept that if it’s not available anywhere else means more than likely you are paying full price for an outdated product. Its still the internets biggest flea market.
The main reason I have used Amazon & been a “Prime customer” is because after moving here from Madison MS, I could not find the things I wanted without having to spend hours of my time, plus the gas for my car & the added fear of getting lost & ending up in a bad part of the city.
I have a permanent traumatic brain injury over 22 years ago, after my heart & breathing totally stopped it took a while to resuscitate me & since oxygen was not getting to my brain, brain cells died where my short term memory is & those cells cannot regenerate.
So I cannot remember anything that would be a new memory to me.. so I do use my Prime but their promises are no longer kept & the Prime rate has gone up over 300% since I joined over 10 years ago & they started losing my packages constantly & “free returns..not so much b/c Amazon wants you to drive yourself somewhere they deem as “close to you” (yeah, right) rather than picking your returns from your front door.
I can barely understand the customer service reps as English is apparently learned from a tv show or movie made in the US or some training program they go thru before becoming a customer service representative.
I can barely understand their “english” & I HATE ASKING SOMEONE, OVER & OVER AGAIN, to please repeat what they said 10 times before I just give up & hang up…shame on you Amazon, it isn’t like you lost any money after the Covid pandemic hit like the majority of the rest of us “common population” on Earth..so Amazon stop being a “big faceless human being corporation” and put yourself in the average person’s place…
Ditto. I don’t mean to come across as hateful, but I often just have to say “can you please slow down, I’m having trouble understanding what you’re saying”.
Use Keepa instead of CamelCamelCamel
I agree with you, Kyle, that Amazon is sucking these days and Prime is way overpriced. And I am very annoyed with them too, and thinking about jumping ship. I don’t really want or need all of Prime’s dubious benefits, except for Kindle Unlimited. I’m a reader, and I got hooked on KU during the pandemic, because I always could find SOMETHING decent to read. The 2 day shipping is nice when I can get it, but mostly a nice to rather than a need to thing. I don’t really use Prime Video, just don’t care. So I have started to research other e-reader apps comparable to KU. If I can find one, I may bail on Prime. And if Prime were to cut KU loose as a stand-alone, I’d just subscribe to it and dump the rest of it. Not likely though.
But I agree with a lot of your readers that I’ve come to rely on online shopping to get the job done in as painless and effective a fashion as possible, and Amazon has been a key to making my shopping life hugely better. The price is not always the best, but I use the Keepa price tracker app so I get an alert when a price is at its lowest. The selection is what keeps me coming back, and the horrible memories of trailing from one brick and mortar store after another, trying to find what I’m looking for. And some stores are so big and stocked so strangely that you will never know if they carry something you are looking for, because it might not be where you expect to find it. I just had that experience on the Meijer.com website this morning, found an item to add to my online grocery pickup order that I hadn’t been able to find in the store. And I’ve been looking for weeks! They actually have the item, but it is so well hidden that you can’t find it unless you are shopping online. Don’t have that problem with Amazon.
So even though Amazon are acting like jerks these days, especially since the new guy took over the entire fulfillment operation, I will continue shopping there as it has been a godsend for me, especially during the pandemic. Still is. But I might ditch Prime if I can find another decent e-reader app with a huge selection to choose from. If I go that route, I will lose the e-books I’ve bought and paid for. And that will be VERY annoying. But I really dislike companies that turn into gougers and use control and manipulation tactics. It just makes me want to kiss them goodbye.
KU *is* a stand alone! 🙂 I use it on my Kindle and relish in it! In the U.S. it’s $11.99 currently! Hopefully you’re able to take advantage of it, good luck! 🙂