Amazon.ca Prime Membership - Still worth it?

[TylerM4]

Posted in regional forums because my brief research tells me that where you live has a big influence on this topic.

Considering cancelling our membership after having it for a couple of years. The main reason is because I don't get "Free 2 day prime shipping" anymore. Rarely do they quote me shipping times less than 1 week - the "Free Prime Shipping" date is often the same date as regular shipping option. Items "Fulfilled by amazon" are often 4 or even 6 weeks out! We don't use much of the "extra" stuff that comes with a membership. We do have their prime video setup on our smart TV but honestly the content isn't very good and for every 1 hour we watch prime we watch 20hours of Netflix, so no problem giving that up.

I guess the other nice thing about the prime membership is that you don't have to worry about the $35 threshold for free shipping. Not too worried about that, there's always some household goods I can tack on if needed.

Anything I'm not thinking about here? $80/year for a video steaming service I barely use and so I don't have to worry about $35 minimum for free shipping?

[Glacier]

My daughter had her friend Alexa over last year... and to make a long story short, I unknowingly signed up for Amazon Prime because my "Amazon Alexa" started listening when someone said "Alexa." Have i noticed any difference? No. I will be cancelling it before the year is up.

[oneh2obabe]

Amazon keeps asking if I want to sign up for Prime whenever I place an order. The answer is NO. Usually get my orders within a week from date ordered but sometimes might take 10 days.

[Even Steven]

I've canceled my Netflix and instead spend money on Amazon Prime which comes with video service.

[common_sense_guy]

It depends what you're ordering or how often. I made a purchase and I didn't have Amazon Prime and shipping was going to cost me over $16. If I had Amazon Prime it was going to be free so just the cost of a $7 membership. For me that was an obvious no brainer. I prefer Netflix or Amazon Prime because Netflix has 5.1 surround sound

[jimmy4321]

I've had prime for a few years, I find it's worth it for shipping alone.
If you use Prime Video despite it isn't up to Netflix as far as selection, then its even more worth it. Sometimes they have some oddball stuff, also some Prime only series.
I abandoned the music part of it all a couple years ago for Spotify

[OKkayak]

We got Amazon last year mainly for the movies, seems certain movies that aren't on Netflix are usually on Prime. We don't order much but when we do, we usually get it within a day or two, we only had to wait a week once but that was during Christmas so the guaranteed delivery date was a week and it made it the day before.

[fluffy]

I signed on to Amazon Prime for the free shipping a long time ago, before the streaming service came online. It's somewhere around eighty bucks a year now, for me with the amount of online shopping I do it's still a good deal just for the shipping, but the streaming is one of the better of those available. I abandoned traditional cable a few years back in favour of a second tier internet provider and a small collection of streaming services. There's more TV than I have time to watch and the choices are many. Prime is one of the better ones in my opinion, Crave is right up there too if you kick the extra few bucks for HBO content. I'd had enough of regular cable-internet, my service with Shaw was over $200/month and it seemed like it went up a couple of bucks every other bill. I'm paying about half of that now and I'm happy, especially since the streaming services are mobile and I can view them at home, in camp, or anywhere in between.

.

[ferri]

You can also read books free with Prime, you don't need a Kindle, there is an app. you can download. I've read some great books and saved a lot of money. lol

[Gone_Fishin]

With the Trudeau Inflation Tax causing prices to soar out of control, it doesn't take much to hit the $35 mark these days. Thus, I don't bother with Prime.

I hope people understand that "free shipping" also means shipping costs are built into the cost of items, and with insane levels of taxation on distribution channels with Justin's Taxes, the Amazon consumer is paying way more than they did before, Prime or no Prime.

Took me less than a minute to find an example:

Insta-Pot slow cooker on .com is $89.00USD = $108CDN
Insta-Pot slow cooker on .ca is $130CDN

That $22 difference (it's more than 20% more expensive on .ca) is your cost of the Trudeau Inflation Tax.

[oneh2obabe]

The Cdn. price is basically the same as what is shown on the US site after shipping and import fees are added.

Price: $88.94 + $37.13 Shipping & Import Fees Deposit to Canada

[Gone_Fishin]

The Cdn. price is basically the same as what is shown on the US site after shipping and import fees are added.

Price: $88.94 + $37.13 Shipping & Import Fees Deposit to Canada

Exactly. But Americans don't pay those shipping and import fees. Canadians do, because of Trudeau's Inflation Tax that makes those fees necessary to have the seller's costs covered should they sell from .com into Canada. Either way (on .com or .ca), the Canadian pays far more than the American for the identical item.

Do you understand now?

[fluffy]

Took me less than a minute to find an example:

Insta-Pot slow cooker on .com is $89.00USD = $108CDN
Insta-Pot slow cooker on .ca is $130CDN

There's no replacement for smart shopping. It's like a trip to Costco, just because you're buying a ten year supply of cashews doesn't necessarily mean you're getting a bargain. Business is still business.

[Gone_Fishin]

Took me less than a minute to find an example:

Insta-Pot slow cooker on .com is $89.00USD = $108CDN
Insta-Pot slow cooker on .ca is $130CDN

There's no replacement for smart shopping. It's like a trip to Costco, just because you're buying a ten year supply of cashews doesn't necessarily mean you're getting a bargain. Business is still business.

That doesn't change the fact that due to Trudeau's Inflation Tax, Canadians pay over 20% more for a slow cooker than our American friends that live a few miles away across an imaginary line.

[TylerM4]

Thanks for the input all!