amazon minimum up

[Lee M-S]

anybody else notice that Amazon now requires a $49 order for free shipping?

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[terracore]

So it went from $25 to $35 to $49. The way they are pushing prime I'm not sure it's going to stop at $49.

For those who don't know, Prime members can get the Amazon Store Card (not to be confused with the Amazon Credit Card). When you buy using the store card you get 5% off your purchases in the form of a monthly credit (towards future amazon purchases). If you are savvy and rig your purchases into the 15% off subscription category then you effectively get 20% off your purchases. There are some caveats in the fine print about using the store card compared to the credit card. For example, you don't get 5% off your prime membership fee billed to the store card, but you do get whatever perks come with paying for prime membership fee if using the amazon credit card. If you choose to have both you can choose which account you pay for what.

Right now if you get approved for the store card they also give you a $20 instant credit.

[terracore]

Not too deep in the bowels of the Amazon web site I found where to change the billing for my prime membership (it's coming up) from Amazon Store Card (no benefit because it does not qualify as a merchandise purchase) to charging my regular credit card (99 Hawaiian airline miles).

When playing against house rules you need to know all the rules of the game to maximize your savings odds....

[Ino]

Amazon has gotten on the bad side of Wall Street Analyst;
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2016/01/29/a...t-all-bad/

Shipping costs keep increasing and UPS/Fedex can't keep up with it during the holidays anyway. My nephew makes $25 a hour delivering Amazon packages locally in San Jose;
http://fortune.com/2016/02/18/amazon-flex-deliveries/

Looks like the driving force behind the minimum purchase increases is Amazon Prime;
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/...g/5361351/

[kalakoa]

Shipping costs keep increasing

Due to high fuel prices, right?

[terracore]

Hopping packages from one hub to another in the traditional connect-the-dots fashion is 25% of the ultimate shipping cost. The larger 75% portion comes from what people call the "last mile" portion of the delivery where most of the cost is labor. This is why you see delivery drones in the headlines all the time. (hint, the first ones implemented won't fly http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...pital.html )

The other option that is due to explode soon is crowd-sourcing delivery. Essentially, Uber for packages. Why pay UPS to deliver a package if the destination is already on the way during somebody's normal commute ?

[DTisme]

Google "amazon getting into delivery business" for many articles on amazon's plans to be its own delivery service, including air service, taking on UPS, FedEx and DHL.

[Lee M-S]

I guess they won't be fulfilling orders as quickly as they used to, either.
I ordered my $49+ worth of merchandise Feb 29; they've never given me a ship date--16 days and it's still waiting to be processed.

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[kalakoa]

they won't be fulfilling orders as quickly as they used to

It helps to cancel the occasional order with reason = "would not arrive on time".

[Kapoho Joe]

Amazon appears to be holding my orders until such time that there are enough of them to warrant 2day fedex and then everything comes at once.