Amazon just raised their Prime membership prices
For the first time in 3 years, Amazon has increased their prices from $119 a year to $139 a year.
The last time they had a price hike was 3 years ago.
That's a long time.
And the only reason they are adjusting their prices now is because of inflation - but that's not what their CEO says.
According to him, it's because they are expanding services, and they see the price increase as necessary to fund their product empire.
It's also not a coincidence Netflix raised their prices. Now that the camels back is broken, expect it to happen on every other site.
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It's hard to imagine a reasonable price hike for Amazon Prime or Netflix that I would balk at. They're effectively monopolies with no great replacement.
I had the same thought. I could potentially see myself giving up Netflix at some point, but there are other streaming services I subscribe to that I'd easily let go first.
Still well worth the cost. There is no other substitute.
I have probably saved close to $600 just on shipping alone for items I have purchased from Amazon in a year, and I get them in 1-2 days to boot. Prime Video is just gravy to me (also included), and has gotten NOTICEABLY better content in the past few years.
For sure - I don’t even know who else I’d buy from if I wasn’t shopping on Amazon. Maybe Alibaba? I mean, the products on Amazon are from there anyways. Then again, Alibaba takes months to ship to the US so it’s not an effective substitute.
I don't really get why this makes the news. This is long overdue. Amazon has been providing much more than $120 worth of value a year with how much stuff is loaded in it. If prices continue to hike with little to no additional value provided, then it should make news.
The bigger question to me is about competition. It's like a Costco Card membership. Do you make that money back with how much you shop there? For me, I absolutely do and then there's excess value to spare.
Can other big players even compete? Probably not at this rate, but they can start to try with strategic partnerships/acquisitions to cover the breadth that Amazon does with shopping, streaming, reading, gaming, and more.
I'm not personally aware of any membership at the price that provides even the relative same amount of value.
It's news worthy because because it's been so long since they've upped it - when you think about inflation over these past few years it's pretty remarkable that Amazon has been able to sustain their record profits without changing their prices. But your right, I don't mind paying the extra $20 a year. It's worth it in my eyes.
I think IHers can learn something here from Amazon which is that you don't need to focus on price, focus on value.