Timber

Right, why wouldn't they go the Netflix route and split off the 2 services? The streaming is a nice bonus but when I first got Prime it was only for the shipping. I still pay only for the shipping. I do not want to pay for streaming. $79 is a price that I can justify for free shipping, $119 is not.

Matt925

Same.

davidh777

The funny thing for me is that I used to use lots of shipping and no streaming, and now I buy a lot less stuff but use the streaming a fair amount. I'll do the math if there's a price change, but filling up a cart to hit the then-$25 free-shipping amount was always a PITA, and made me buy stuff I didn't really need.

Vipper II

I'm counting both the streaming and the shipping. Sure, I also have Netflix streaming, but Comcast has not been known to throttle Amazon like my recent experiences with Netflix would seem to indicate (I regularly get 50 mbps down; that shouldn't yield anything other than Super HD with Netflix). Furthermore, I like being able to place an order for a single item, less than $25, at a moment's notice and get it within 2 days; a lot of times I get it in just 1.

fumanstan

I'm not sure how you wouldn't be clear, a lot of people order 1 or 2 items that are under $25 or $35, especially movies.

Living Dead

I wish they would do something just for shipping. I could care less about the streaming video.

Classic Films

Before Amazon had a steaming service they offered Prime with unlimited shipping only for $79. When they made streaming available with Prime the price stayed the same. Now people are saying if they split the streaming to a separate service they could keep $79 as the price for unlimited shipping or raise it just a small amount. I don't think the cost of the streaming service is the problem. Its the cost of shipping. Amazon seems to have been willing to eat the cost of the streaming service in order to offer a bundle of services to appeal to more people. Not every streaming video available at Amazon is part of Amazon Prime. Recent movies and TV shows are charged for individually even if you have Prime. Amazon may hope by offering some movies as part of Prime people will pay for the movies that are not part of Prime. If they did offer a separate streaming service I would think it would have to include all movie and TV programs they offer. I also don't think it would help decrease the cost of Prime by removing the streaming service. I never saw the point of Prime until they offered streaming movies. I managed to find $25 ( now $35) worth of goods to buy to get free shipping without Prime. It didn't matter to me that it took 4 days instead of 2 to receive my merchandise. By offering shipping plus videos they were trying to attract more people like me to get the service. Apparently they were too successful because they signed up so many people that they lost money with prime and now will raise their prices. Another possibility is that they could offer unlimited standard instead of two day shipping with Prime. That would reduce the cost of postage. Their standard shipping is considered faster than the free shipping. I think the shipping speed and cost to them for standard and free shipping is the same but that items shipped standard service get priority and leave the warehouse sooner. I actually liked that because it gave me longer to cancel an order if I changed my mind or add something to an order so I could still get free shipping without finding another $35 worth of stuff to buy.

Trevor

I'm not sure if I'll stay in if they increase the price. I used to be happy just "spending up" to get to $25 and free shipping. From 2009 to 2011 I averaged about 60 orders per year. I halfway relunctanctly bought Prime thanks to a coupon deal. The last two years I've placed 120 orders each year. It helps not having to find things to add. In the past I missed a few deals due to delays in searching. Getting to $35 will be tough for a cheapskate like me though. I see I'm just rambling and not sure what I'll end up doing.

zyzzle

Streaming costs Amazon peanuts compared to physically shipping product. They enticed many into Prime by sweetening the deal by including streaming, which has a very low marginal cost for them. Now, undoubtedly their tactics used to justify the large increase will be upsell the end value offered by their streaming service. My guess is 90 to 95% of the people use Prime for its shipping advantages alone. So, it will be a "nice try" by Amazon to justify its 50% cost increase in Prime. I won't be buying into it. Hopefully others won't fall into the trap.

Classic Films

To me Amazon is the safest no hassle place to purchase items over the internet. I have never had a problem returning an item, getting a replacement for a damaged item, or a refund for an item never received. I have gotten a full refund for an item never received sold by an Amazon 3rd party when the 3rd party wanted to make a deal with me to split the loss. That service has value to me. After the recent hassle getting a refund from Nomorerack I appreciate this even more. I find making an Amazon return easier than waiting on a long, slow line at Best Buy or Walmart customer service.

Everyone will do whatever makes sense for them when the new rules and prices come into effect. Some may initially cancel the service and find they are better off renewing it. Others may find its not worth it after renewing and seek to cancel it. Its not for me or anyone else to preach what you should do when there is a price increase.

I don't blame Amazon for this. They are in business to make money and if their cost go up they have to pass the cost along. I don't think they are lying about their cost increase. We have the option to refuse the service if we no longer wish to pay for it.

davidh777

That would never fly because new releases are too expensive. I expect they would continue what they're doing: catalog releases via streaming, and new releases a la carte. It's like Netflix streaming combined with iTunes new releases all on one service. The key for pricing Prime streaming separately would be to be in the neighborhood of Netflix but lowered to fit the perception that there's less content there than on Netflix. You also have to figure that many potential subscribers probably have Netflix already so you have to figure out how much they would pay for a supplemental service.

Strapped4Cash

I've preferred non-Prime in the past.
I prefer non-Prime now.
I'll prefer non-Prime when Prime is more money.

I really appreciate the free temporary line of credit non-Prime members have*, don't need streaming and have no interest in how long they take to send me stuff (as long as it's in a reasonable time, say less than 4 weeks).

* They take an extra few days to a week to ship (a "penalty" for non-Prime'rs) and that gives us time to find the money to pay for what we order, a "credit line" in a way, and one that I have often appreciated in the past.

UAIOE

I think I'm more bummed at the increase to $35 for free shipping more than the Prime bump.

Prime already seemed overpriced for what it is, upping the cost only makes it less appealing.

Classic Films

I think that depends on how often and what you buy from Amazon. It is certainly over priced if all you buy from them is DVDs 5 times a year. You are paying in advance for something you may not use.

fujishig

I've noticed they've been licensing more stuff on the Prime streaming catalog, including a bunch of exclusives (which is really what they need to lure people from Netflix) and recent stuff. I'm not sure how much they're spending, or if they're going to really go gung ho into original series as well, but I'm sure there's a cost to that.

But yeah, they won't unbundle it because their streaming hasn't yet reached critical mass, and most (I think) would opt for just shipping.

Classic Films

I wish Prime had a better search engine. I didn't know that all 5 seasons of the Dick Van Dyke Show were available until I happened to be searching for the show's DVDs and saw it was free with Prime. It made me wonder what other classic shows they have beside Twilight Zone and The Best of I Love Lucy and Dr Who. I wish there were a way to search by year or decade rather than randomly searching for a show by name to see if it is included in prime. I would even like it if you could sort the TV Shows by name. If there is a way to do this please share as I am clueless.
I also recently noticed Andy Griffith Show is also available.

If ever I have trouble sleeping its nice spending 25 minutes with Rob, Laura, Buddy, and Sally.

fujishig

I know that it was a huge hassle to search for free-for-Prime content earlier, but the apps for ios and the different videogame consoles have a separate tab for that content. no idea if they made it easier to search through the web...

darkdaze73

I agree with everything except for the bolded. I don't order enough to justify paying for Prime. But I do not think someone should be penalized for not having it. Wanna send it via pony express? Fine. But don't hold my item as a "penalty" for not having Prime. Especially when it's something I preordered 6 months ago.

I have benefited from them holding my item beyond release day as it has allowed me to see what other deals/coupons pop up around release. But that leads to a lost sale if or when I do find an item cheaper somewhere else.

With Amazon's lackluster sales, I just reward the store that actually put the item on sale to begin with, even if it means paying sales tax. And now that Amazon does charge tax in my state, that's one less benefit they have over other businesses, albeit online or B&M.

Preterite

Prime is all about instant gratification. I get all of my non-Prime shipments within two weeks of placing my order, and that's fast enough for me. I have to wait a bit and combine items for the free shipping instead of placing orders more frequently, but that's hardly a hardship. If I absolutely need an item in a hurry, I'll pay for the shipping and still come out ahead over forking over the cash for Prime.

Of course, I have been assured on this forum that anyone who is not willing to fork over an additional $80 a year for shipping is simply too poor to be buying non-essential items like books and movies.

UAIOE

Why should I pay to get free 2-day shipping when I can save $80 by buying less frequently, and buying in quantities that net me free shipping?

Amazon ships pretty quick, even with the "slow" free shipping, so all I'd be doing is paying to say I get my shit a few days faster.

Since I'm buying online, its not a life necessity, why am I paying to have it here in 48 hours?

Shannon Nutt

That would make sense, since I usually average about one Blu-ray order or book order per week. What I don't get is this - instead of raising prices, why doesn't Amazon just make more items non-PRIME eligible? I'm guessing they're losing money on the bigger-ticket shipping, not the books and movies, so why make everyone else suffer when they can just cut their costs by changing what items are eligible?

Trevor

I think a lot of us with Prime don't give a crap about the speed of the delivery. I don't think any of my ~ thousand orders from Amazon needed to be to me within even six months.

But most of my orders over the years are sub $10 items. Always having to find stuff to get to $25 was both a hassle, and obviously leads us all to buy things we don't really need. Now that the free limit is $35, those two negatives are even larger.

Plus, there were a couple times where I lost out on temporary price mistakes with just the extra few minutes of finding things to put in my cart to get to $25.

Rob V

Amazon is successful because they offer the convenience of FAST SHIPPING. If they take that away and then start to add sales tax then it'll destroy their business model and more and more people will go to different sources.

Easy

This. Plus, there is a window for purchase at the sale price. If a movie is on sale for $9.99 I'm not going to pad the purchase to $35 to get "free" shipping. There are also a few things I want to stream, so for me it was worth it... this year. Next year I'll re-evaluate.

davidh777

That's a big part of their business model, but not the only part. They also offer the convenience of getting a wide variety of products in one online shopping trip. There are a lot of people who won't want to go to multiple sites to save on tax or ship a little faster. Amazon's business model also used to include lowest DVD prices, but I think it's safe to say that they will continue to shift and evolve.

But I don't think we're covering any ground we haven't already covered many times before. Everyone uses Amazon differently and will base the usefulness and cost-effectiveness of Prime on their own needs.