Amazon Prime Has Completely Changed My Shopping Habits

I remember Neil at work telling me about Prime. "Your recycle bin will be overflowing," he said, as he described the free 2-day shipping offer from Amazon and the number of items he purchased from it. At the time I didn't think paying $79 a year for the privilege of shipping was worth it. Then, last holiday season we had a bunch of presents to ship across the country, so we decided to give the free trial a shot. And we haven't looked back since.

Why is Amazon Prime such a hit? Two reasons:

Shipping speed

When I need something, I can categorize that need in terms of time as follows:

• Right now!
• Today-ish
• Soon
• Sometime this month, maybe?
• Eventually, when I get around to it

Amazon Prime succeeds because it hits on all but the first bullet point. Need a whisk? Or some granola? How about some toilet bowl cleaner? If you need this stuff RIGHT NOW then Amazon Prime isn't for you. But if you can wait a day or two, then it's a great fit.

Prices

Amazon has some pretty competitive prices on a variety of goods. These are usually name-brand products in multi-packs (6 bags of granola, 4 packs of toothpaste) that come out to less than what you pay for a single unit at a retail store. Amazon doesn't ALWAYS have the best prices (nearly 7 bucks for Bon Ami?) and doesn't ship EVERYTHING as Prime. But its hit rate for us is a solid 70-80%.

Indeed my recycle bin is overflowing with cardboard boxes, Neil. Amazon's getting a fair amount of my coin these days. Prices and shipping speed together result in a convenient way to buy all but the most urgent of things.

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