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Boyd

Boyd

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No need to apologize to me, because it was Jon who asked. ;)

But this was a smart move for Amazon - they will bring in millions more without doing anything, and the loyal members aren't going to cancel. If they are really losing so much on this, it will be interesting to see how high they can push the fee in the future.
 
46er

46er

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Mar 24, 2004
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Boyd said:
But this was a smart move for Amazon - they will bring in millions more without doing anything, and the loyal members aren't going to cancel.
Click to expand...

Yep, just like the cable company model; bait 'em, hook 'em, reel the $$ in. How many cancel cable when the price goes up each year? Once AMZN gets that delivery service really going, then Prime might become profitable.
 
Jon Holcombe

Jon Holcombe

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bobpbx said:
I found what I was looking at regarding the pie chart.
Click to expand...

You are absolutely correct according to that pie chart. But I think the pie chart is insane according to the sources I cited earlier, common sense, and family members that have Prime. Just $17 of the $100 Prime membership is used for shipping? I bought a 30 lb. dumbbell this year. That has to be more than $17 alone. I buy, and return, many items over the course of the year that do not work, and Amazon pays for the return shipping. Off the top of my head, the shipping costs and return shipping costs for me has to be hundreds of dollars. That is a big reason why I use Prime, it is cheap. Maybe UPS is charging Amazon pennies on the dollar for shipping, but I doubt it.

Another quote from Jeff Hoyt, Editor in Chief at Moneytips, regarding Prime: "In the first quarter of (2017), net shipping losses were almost $2 billion. Since then, Amazon stopped reporting its shipping revenue and costs."

https://www.moneytips.com/how-does-amazon-pay-for-free-shipping
 
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Boyd

Boyd

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Jon Holcombe said:
I buy, and return, many items over the course of the year that do not work, and Amazon pays for the return shipping.
Click to expand...

That clearly it makes sense for you. Didn't realize returns were free. But it wouldn't be worth it for my usage patterns, and it seems that just about everything I buy from Amazon already has free shipping. Also, unlike you, I don't mind buying from local stores when possible. If I can get the same thing at the same price, I'll go to Best Buy (or wherever).

Just today I bought a relatively expensive piece of audio gear. I was able to get it from Sweetwater at a lower price and no sales tax - saving me about $130 compared to Amazon (and it included free two day Fedex shipping). So I will just continue shopping around and buying from the best place on a case by case basis.
 
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bobpbx

bobpbx

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Jon Holcombe said:
Just $17 of the $100 Prime membership is used for shipping? I bought a 30 lb. dumbbell this year. That has to be more than $17 alone.
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Out of 100,000,000 people, how many have as many shipments as you? How many buy prime for the music and video mainly, and never want anything else? How big is Amazon. Do you think they may negotiate for shipping rates that you would find 'very' low? Think of car insurance. How many out of a 100,000,000 people make a claim each year? I know, that last one is not apples and oranges, but I'm just making a point.
 
Jon Holcombe

Jon Holcombe

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Boyd said:
If I can get the same thing at the same price, I'll go to Best Buy (or wherever).
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Gotta do what works for you. I would rather work at my desk, in the yard, or go into the woods then to spend two or three hours driving and shopping.
 
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Jon Holcombe

Jon Holcombe

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bobpbx said:
Out of 100,000,000 people, how many have as many shipments as you? How many buy prime for the music and video mainly, and never want anything else? How big is Amazon. Do you think they may negotiate for shipping rates that you would find 'very' low?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I thought about all of that (except for the auto insurance analogy), but I see no way to reconcile the vast difference between the Fortune Magazine / Technology Review articles and the NBR pie chart. One thing is for sure, Bezos is making a lot of money and Prime must be driving sales in a big way.
 
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46er

46er

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Jon Holcombe said:
but I see no way to reconcile the vast difference between the Fortune Magazine / Technology Review articles and the NBR pie chart.
Click to expand...

The pie chart is only an estimate, as stated by the person interviewed, put together by DA Davidson Inc., a financial services company pushing Amazon. No info was given as to what data, if any, they based the estimate on. The financial reports of AMZN are the factual numbers.

https://stocknews.com/news/amzn-da-davidson-raises-price-target-to-1800-from-1500/
 
Jon Holcombe

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46er said:
The financial reports of AMZN are the factual numbers.
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34% profit vs. 1 billion loss is a night and day swing. I am not seeing any information about Prime profitability, or anything to put it in context on your link, which is about Whole Foods and stock price.
 
Jon Holcombe

Jon Holcombe

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this_is_nascar said:
I've never had a free return on shipping being a Prime member, never.
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Some items (some LaCrosse boots for instance), are sold with "FREE RETURNS" advertised. Just tell them you want to return it and they provide a shipping label. And if a Prime product is defective, or does not work, they will give you a UPS shipping label.
 
Boyd

Boyd

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https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/wo...ation-sent-it-out-to-random-contact/755507974

"The person on the other line said, 'unplug your Alexa devices right now,'" she said. "'You're being hacked.'" That person was one of her husband's employees, calling from Seattle. "We unplugged all of them and he proceeded to tell us that he had received audio files of recordings from inside our house," she said. "At first, my husband was, like, 'no you didn't!' And the (recipient of the message) said 'You sat there talking about hardwood floors.' And we said, 'oh gosh, you really did hear us.'"

When KIRO 7 asked Amazon questions, they sent this response: “Amazon takes privacy very seriously. We investigated what happened and determined this was an extremely rare occurrence. We are taking steps to avoid this from happening in the future."

 
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