TGIF-Amazon Prime

TGIF-Amazon Prime: a reader asks…

Happy Friday! Should I pay for Amazon Prime?

Amazon Prime costs $99 a year, or $10.99 a month. Shipping charges for stuff you buy online can easily be as much as that, depending on how much you shop. Add to the fact that you can buy just about anything on Amazon.com, and I think many people can consider it a good value – I certainly do. The benefits of Amazon Prime are many, here’s just a sample of what you get (from their website):

1. FREE Two-Day Shipping on eligible items to addresses in the contiguous U.S. and other shipping benefits. Free same-day delivery to eligible zip codes.Free two-hour delivery on some items to eligible zip codes.
2. Prime Video: unlimited streaming of movies and TV episodes for paid or free trial members in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
3. Prime Music: unlimited, ad-free access to hundreds of Prime Playlists and more than a million songs for members in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
4. Prime Photos: Secure unlimited photo storage in Amazon Cloud Drive.

So the free shipping can quickly add up, especially if you switch from driving to a store for things to getting those same things from Amazon.com. They even have a free trial. Even if you have Netflix, there are some movies and TV shows that you’ll find on Amazon Prime Video you won’t find elsewhere. Even if you have Spotify or Pandora, Amazon Prime Music has plenty of music for you to listen to that you might not run across elsewhere. And the benefit of being able to store your thousands of digital photos in the Amazon Cloud Drive will save your digital life if your computer crashes. And the list above is just a slice of what you will get with an Amazon Prime account.

I’ve found that within a few months of shopping online, I’ve saved the $99 in shipping costs alone, so it’s basically free. Now when I’m shopping online, I first look to see if Amazon has what I want before I shop elsewhere. Often, the same online stores are also on Amazon, so I get exactly what I want, and don’t have to do a lot of shopping around. And did I mention their return policies are very consumer-friendly? Amazon lets individuals create their own store within the Amazon ecosphere, so you may be buying something through Amazon, but from just about anyone. The rating system helps ensure that your shopping experience remains clean and easy. And who doesn’t like receiving packages!

A quick word about pricing: you’ll find some of the lowest prices on Amazon.com, and because multiple Amazon shops sell the same things, there’s good pricing competition to keep them low.

I do have one downside to Amazon Prime: I use an Apple TV and can’t watch Amazon Prime Video on it – there’s no widget for Prime Video. I hope they fix that soon. There is a workaround though, I can call up Amazon Prime Video on my iPad and send it to the Apple TV. But truly, I can’t think of a downside to using Amazon Prime, unless you don’t like shopping online and prefer to shop in physical stores and malls.