What The Tech: Is Amazon Prime worth the cost?
BY JAMEY TUCKER, Consumer Tech Reporter
Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days are underway, giving Prime members two days of discounts on
millions of products.
But before signing up just to get the deals, there’s another question worth asking: Is Amazon
Prime still worth $139 a year?
When Amazon Prime launched, the answer was fairly easy for frequent Amazon shoppers. The
membership included fast, free shipping at a time when free shipping was much harder to find.
Today, Prime costs $139 a year or $14.99 a month. And free shipping alone may not be enough
to justify the cost.
How many Amazon orders would it take to pay for Prime?
If you assume shipping would otherwise cost about $6 per order, you would need to place
roughly 24 orders a year to make up the $139 membership fee through shipping savings alone.
That works out to about two orders every month.
But even that calculation comes with an important catch. Many retailers now offer free shipping
once you spend a certain amount. Target, for example, offers free shipping on orders of $35 or
more. Otherwise, standard shipping costs $5.99.
That means Prime’s value increasingly depends on more than simply getting a package
delivered for free.
Prime is now much more than shipping
Amazon has added a long list of benefits over the years.
Prime members get Prime Video, Amazon Music Prime, Prime Reading, discounts on
prescriptions and fuel, grocery benefits and other perks. Amazon also includes free Grubhub+
with a Prime membership.
And then there are shopping events like Prime Big Deal Days.
This year’s fall sale runs October 6 and 7, with millions of deals available exclusively to Prime
members. Amazon says new limited-time deals are dropping three times a day during the event.
If you’re not already a member, Amazon says eligible customers can sign up for a free 30-day
Prime trial and use it to shop the sale.
Don’t assume every Prime deal is the best deal
A Prime Big Deal Days badge doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t find the same product
cheaper somewhere else.
Before buying, check the price at other major retailers and look at the item’s price history. That
can tell you whether the “deal” is actually unusually low or simply lower than the price Amazon
was charging recently.
So, is Prime still worth it?
For someone who orders from Amazon frequently, watches Prime Video and uses several of the
other benefits, $139 a year can still be a good value.
But if you’re mostly keeping Prime because you signed up years ago and like free shipping, it
may be worth doing the math.
At roughly $6 in avoided shipping charges per order, you’d need around 24 qualifying orders a
year just to cover the membership fee.
Prime may still be worth the money. But unlike the early days of Amazon Prime, it’s no longer
automatically a no-brainer.
