Amazon Prime: Worth it?

November 11, 2015 12:14 AM

Is there a way to find out if Amazon Prime is paying off for me?

My Prime membership is expiring at the end of the month, and I'd like to find out if joining was worth it. I only order books and stuff, so Prime upgrades the shipping. I don't use the streaming services.

Is there somewhere on the site that will tell me how much I saved? I called customer service, they really didn't understanding what I was asking.

Before Prime, it wasn't a problem to wait until I was going to order enough to qualify for free shipping.

posted by Marky to Shopping (17 answers total)

This Lifehacker article seems pretty thorough. I don't think you'll be able to find out from Amazon directly how much you personally saved on shipping, but the article does give some numbers that should allow you to estimate it based on the number of orders you made.
posted by Aleyn at 12:24 AM on November 11, 2015

If you never cared about having things shipped faster and were fine with waiting for the free shipping, I'd say it has "saved" you nothing, because you wouldn't have paid the expedited shipping costs.

(now if your question was really just "is Amazon Prime worth it?" then my answer is yes! yes! yes!)
posted by treehorn+bunny at 12:26 AM on November 11, 2015 [8 favorites]

Amazon prime is worth it at our house because we often have trouble getting to the store, due to small children and their nap schedules. Prior to having tiny ones we left things in our cart similar to what you mentioned in your question. For us it isn't the shipping costs that we're saving, it's the value of our time that makes it worth it.

If you're really only using it for things that don't cost you a lot in terms of your time it may not be worth it to you. But I would argue that you are not taking full advantage of your membership.
posted by vignettist at 1:11 AM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

I use slow ship speed with Prime. It ships within five days -- but I get a dollar of ebook/emusic/video credit each time.
posted by tilde at 2:24 AM on November 11, 2015 [13 favorites]

Make a list of all of the purchases you've made since getting prime. Trim that down to all of the orders that you actually needed/wanted within 2 days. Next, figure out what the shipping would have been for those orders to get them within the 2 day window. If your first figure is more than you're paying for Prime, then you're better off paying for Prime.

For example, here in the UK, it's £7.99* per order to "get it by [2 days time]". Prime costs £79.99. I have to purchase 10 orders, within a year, that I need/want within 2 days to break even on the cost of paying for Prime. If I make 11 purchases, I'm better off with Prime. If I make 9, I'm worse off.

I can't think of a time in the last several years where I've come close to making 9 purchases within a year that I needed within 2 days. I generally wait until I have £20 to spend, or use one of those websites that suggests low cost items to add to the order to get it to free shipping if I'm under £20. For me, Prime isn't worth it, because I'm not going to save nearly £80. In the sense I won't be paying £80 on shipping, I'll save, but I'll just be spending that £80 elsewhere, to no actual benefit.

Without running the numbers, it's hard to say, but it seems to me that you're not getting your money's worth.

*I think, I don't ever use expedited shipping.
posted by Solomon at 3:58 AM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

You can download a csv with all of your purchases, using "download order reports", and you should be able to estimate how much you saved in shipping by either calculating how many orders by an average shipping cost, or dividing the fee by number of orders.

Also- I split the cost of Prime with a friend- that makes it totally worth it to me, because I do buy so much on there (for ease at home, but also because I work in a school library and I order low cost used books for my job)
posted by momochan at 5:05 AM on November 11, 2015

The tough thing here is that the biggest cost of Prime is the hardest one to measure -- stuff you bought because the shipping was free and you could get it fast, which you otherwise wouldn't have bought.
posted by escabeche at 5:39 AM on November 11, 2015 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Just a thought for the future: my family makes Amazon Prime "worth it" by sharing one account, which you can do by adding family members. (This is a feature of Prime and not something shady.) My mom likes the streaming so she's the account's owner, my brother and I don't care about streaming, but we all like the free fast shipping. I think I've used the Kindle lending library maybe once but that's also a thing. For me personally, I rely on the 2 day shipping for a lot of important-to-me things. One $100 Prime account being split 3 ways and everyone gets what they need.

If you have friends who use prime, especially ones who use the streaming services, ask them if they'd like to split a portion of the cost and add you to their account for shipping privileges. I'm sure someone will take you up on it.
posted by phunniemee at 5:40 AM on November 11, 2015 [7 favorites]

Our kids accidentally "bought" it a few months ago and I can't believe we didn't have it before. Can't quantify money we've saved on not buying TV shows for them to watch or random movies for us to watch when we have time, but the shipping savings part should be pretty easy to figure up in your individual case. (I don't know that we've "saved" $100 bucks, but it's at least half that.) We have started buying some things online that my wife always hated buying at stores and lugging home (things with huge packaging). Has made that part of grocery shopping easier.
posted by resurrexit at 6:59 AM on November 11, 2015

Another aspect that makes it hard to quantify is the pricing itself. Many times when I am shopping for an item, I get lots of choices from different sellers. Sometimes the Prime offers have a higher price and the non-Prime offers have a lower price, plus a reasonable shipping price which makes it not as expensive as Prime with "free" shipping. But sometimes not - sometimes the non-Prime costs more, sometimes they are the same. It's very hard to add this all up prior to purchase, and I suspect it is impossible to look back over a year of purchases and make a statement about whether you could get each item cheaper without prime.
posted by CathyG at 7:52 AM on November 11, 2015

I don't like Amazon Prime Pantry, I get my groceries delivered using Walmart's website. Shipping is free for $50+, and there's no requirement for filling up a "box" or flat rate delivery fee. I choose free value shipping, items are shipped from different areas and are usually delivered by FEDEX home delivery within a week. I even use value shipping on new video game consoles - they always ship via UPS or FEDEX.

I only bought Amazon Prime because there was a $20 discount, same with the New Kindle Paperwhite. I don't like how Amazon typically adds fees or charge extra for things like an AC adapter and the removal of ads. I like the Kindle unlimited subscription service, being able to borrow more than a single book (Amazon Prime) each month pays for itself. I enjoy watching free Amazon Prime movies on my PS4 using the Amazon Instant Video app. Like tilde, I typically choose no-rush shipping for a dollar promotional credit.

Note: Since the Amazon's New Kindle Paperwhite doesn't require a proprietary AC adapter, you can use your PS Vita 2000 AC adapter instead.
posted by plokent at 8:06 AM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm not a Prime member, but when I was, I found that because shipping was included and fast and the product offerings were so extensive, I often bought things that I might not have bought otherwise. Sometimes I was glad I had purchased the products, sometimes I probably could have done without and would have been fine without my purchases. I suspect the same is true with you, so keep that idea in mind when you make your assessment.
posted by Leontine at 8:44 AM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

I thought about this question exactly just before I discovered Prime Pantry via one of their $5.99 credits for slow shipping. Their prices are much better than NYC for pantry staples and paper goods and even when I don't have PP credit, I come out ahead even with shipping.
I also like it for the same reason I like Kindle Unlimited: easier to take a chance on a free book/show than pay sticker for it, even if only reason for trying is having KU/Prime. I haven't actually done the math on saving $100, but it's close enough that I don't consider it an additional spend worth over analyzing.
posted by TravellingCari at 10:31 AM on November 11, 2015

Don't forget to factor in the fact that in order to get the "free" Prime shipping you can only order from certain vendors, whose prices are usually significantly higher than non Prime vendors. I'm actually beginning to believe Prime is a bit of a rip off.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 1:04 PM on November 11, 2015

Just a note that the sharing of a Prime account is now you can share with one other person who has a separate Amazon account, and not 4 other people like it used to be.
posted by getawaysticks at 3:11 PM on November 11, 2015

To answer your question directly, no I do not believe so, for either of your questions. It probably is not worth it in your case, and you may just want to join another friend's Prime membership, or ask to use it from time to time. I use mine to purchase everything since I do not have a car nor easy access to brick and mortar stores, and for three months, my credit card gives me 5% cashback on Amazon purchases.
posted by yueliang at 5:40 PM on November 11, 2015

My wife and I have cycled on and off of Prime a few times but now stick with it because she uses the Kindle library and we watch a few of their shows (and are waiting for the PK Dick series Man in the High Castle). It used to make little difference if you were Prime or not when shipping to Chicago. Things arrived quickly even with the standard free shipping. That is not the case anymore. Non-Prime free shipping can now be slow as hell. This matters when you order cat food!
posted by srboisvert at 6:39 AM on November 12, 2015