Well, I did it. I went in and deleted Amazon Prime. Gone. No more of the days of getting something next day air for free. It was a fun experiment, but I’ve grown old with paying $100+ (about $120 as of this post) a year so I can get something I really didn’t need the next day or two.
I see it at friend’s houses. Unopened packages. Sure they got it quick, but did they REALLY need it that fast? Would their lives have been irreparably impacted if they had to wait a few more days?
I’m not a fan of Amazon and will shop around but when I can find the same item there or the manufacturer’s site and it costs more at the latter, I’ll use Amazon.
Heck, just placed an order today which reminded me to write this post. I could pay $11.00 to get it tomorrow, or the shipping was still free if I waited until Saturday. Today is Monday, so wait 5 more days to get something I really don’t need right now. Fine.
In lies the quandary for Amazon and why I had that gut feeling it just didn’t matter. They have built such a large infrastructure that they can’t really help but get something to you quickly. So I’ll just sit back and mooch off of the system they built on the dollars of many. Frankly, I’m ok with that.
I have placed two orders with them since cancelling (aka not renewing) my membership. Both times it was free shipping and both times was 5 days or less. My first order only took 3 days to get here actually.
I’m hoping that another side effect is that it will keep me from buying crap just to buy crap, but so far that doesn’t seem to be effective. Who knows, maybe longer term? Regardless, I’ll now be saving over $100 a year on something I wasn’t using to its potential, nor would I.
