4 ms·

Did you totally not notice that they have a free shipping option where you don't need Prime? You don't need the "fast" service and if you do you can pay for it

• douche 11y ago
  Before Amazon pushed Prime, you routinely had to pay for standard shipping everywhere. I remember ordering from catalogs in the pre-internet era where you would pay $20 on a $100 order for 2-4 week shipping. Being able to click a button and have whatever I desire show up on the doorstep within two days for $100/year is the next best thing to a Star Trek replicator.
  • natch 11y ago
    Shipping has indeed gotten faster. But there's no need to give Prime the credit for that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_the_single_cause https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_the_single_cause You don't have to pay $100/year for stuff to show up on your doorstep quickly, compared to the 2-4 weeks you cite. Compared to your 2-4 week yardstick, the shipping you can get for free is also very quick, usually 2 days, sometimes 4-5 days. And it can be 1 day, which is faster than Prime, if you pay a small (way smaller than $100) $n fee as needed. In real life, I've never had to pay for 1-day shipping. So that's $n * 0 = $0 that I've paid, all while getting stuff amazingly quickly compared to those pre-Internet catalog orders.
  • natch 11y ago
    > Before Amazon pushed Prime, you routinely had to pay for standard shipping everywhere. Totally not true. Amazon had a free shipping option for years before Prime. You just had to select it, and sometimes you had to buy $35 or more, same as it is today.