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Amazon's minimum order size for free shipping is now $35

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Re: Amazon's minimum order size for free shipping is now $35

#181

Post by jasonlotito »

Spooky23 wrote: post #65
codegeek wrote: post #17

I am amazed at how amazon remains doing business with so low margins or no profits. We love amazon at my house and being Prime members, we are almost ordering everything under the sun from Amazon that we possibly can. Here is why we love it: - The reviews are actually useful. I just bought a 70 inch TV through amazon and the critical and helpful reviews really helped me get going with settings on the TV that would ha…

> Also we compared the prices and it is almost impossible to beat amazon for these things as well. Huh? Where did you look? For formula, diapers, wipes, etc. Amazon didn't come close to Target, even without coupons. Amazon was like $23 for diapers that were $19.99 at Target. I've been a prime member forever, and wanted to use Amazon, but it easily cost 10-20% more, even with automatic ordering. Combine Target retail…

So, I decided to check up on diapers.

Amazon: $45.99 (doesn't include the $2 coupon on the page). Also, on the page: Pay as low as $26.74 ($0.18 / count) with Subscribe & Save and Amazon Mom

Target: $47.19 Target also offers a subscription, and 5% additional savings if you use their credit card.

Maybe their are additional savings, but I didn't see any of it mentioned. Maybe it's different for formula for wipes, but I didn't feel like checking that, too.

http://www.amazon.com/Pampers-Swaddlers-Diapers-Economy-Coun...

http://www.target.com/p/pampers-swaddlers-diapers-economy-pl...

Re: Amazon's minimum order size for free shipping is now $35

#182

Post by jaymon »

MichaelGG wrote: post #141
001sky wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, companies don't pay tax on sales, but on profits. And Amazon is a company with a very strange attitude to profit: it doesn't seem to like it. In the year 2012, it made a worldwide loss of $39m, even as it had sales totalling $61bn. That year was an aberration, with a costly acquisition weighing the company down, but previous years have been similar. 2011 saw just $631m net income on worldwide sales of $…

The parent to my comment stated it was a "charity" funded by investors. I've no idea if AMZN is a good stock investment. I'd just be surprised to find out that investors buying shares from the company have kept it afloat. People buying shares on the market doesn't give any money to Amazon and is rather meaningless in this context.

I'm pretty sure milesskorpen was just referencing this post by Matthew Yglesias:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/01/29/amazon_q4_pro...

The quote, while probably not wholly accurate, is funny. I think milesskorpen was going for funny, so don't take it too literally.

Re: Amazon's minimum order size for free shipping is now $35

#183

Post by Spooky23 »

jasonlotito wrote: post #181
Spooky23 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also we compared the prices and it is almost impossible to beat amazon for these things as well. Huh? Where did you look? For formula, diapers, wipes, etc. Amazon didn't come close to Target, even without coupons. Amazon was like $23 for diapers that were $19.99 at Target. I've been a prime member forever, and wanted to use Amazon, but it easily cost 10-20% more, even with automatic ordering. Combine Target retail…

So, I decided to check up on diapers. Amazon: $45.99 (doesn't include the $2 coupon on the page). Also, on the page: Pay as low as $26.74 ($0.18 / count) with Subscribe & Save and Amazon Mom Target: $47.19 Target also offers a subscription, and 5% additional savings if you use their credit card. Maybe their are additional savings, but I didn't see any of it mentioned. Maybe it's different for formula for wipes, but I…

In our case, Amazon is $0.38/count and Target is $0.35.

Plus, Target is a smaller package (my son grows like a weed, I want just-in-time inventory), I get another penny per diaper off with the credit card, and Target accepts stacked coupons, which typically translates to another $0.05-$0.10/count discount.

Also, the we don't use it, but the Target generic brands are very high quality and cheap. Saved us a bundle when my son was on formula and the Enfamil coupons ran out!

Re: Amazon's minimum order size for free shipping is now $35

#184

Post by ajtaylor »

voltagex_ wrote: post #179
dmix wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh, I have Amazon prime in Canada and use it constantly, but amazon.ca has an incredibly smaller selection of items than .com. Amazon seems to be slowly expanding it, but still only 25% of the inventory of it's American counterpart. So jealous. Border/customs tariffs from American websites ruins any cost savings (like paying $20 in fees for a shipping a $40 item [1]). That is the root problem, given the geographic n…

Try living in Australia. It's a great country but Amazon won't ship many things to me.

This is particularly true for electronics. However, I've noticed that if the fulfiller is Amazon then there's a better chance of shipping an item to Australia. I can't remember what it was now, but I remember one item where storage option A was fulfilled by Amazon and would ship to AU but storage option B was fulfilled by another company who would NOT ship to AU.

There's also an option somewhere to restrict search results to only items that can be shipped to the chosen country. You'll be disappointed by the reduced selection though. In this case, I suggest Amazon UK who has reasonable shipping to Australia.

Re: Amazon's minimum order size for free shipping is now $35

#185

Post by a3n »

WalterBright wrote: post #175

Not only is Amazon price competitive, saving the 2 hours going to the store and back is a huge deal. Amazon has eliminated about 90% of my non-food shopping.

For me, I wonder if that saved 90% of non-food shopping would actually be an increase in overall shopping. "Sure, I spend $90 out of $100/mo shopping at Amazon, but before I joined Prime I only spent $40 total."

It's the same reason why I don't belong to Costco, it's just an encouragement to buy things that I normally couldn't be bothered to get up off my ass for.

Re: Amazon's minimum order size for free shipping is now $35

#186

Post by voltagex_ »

ajtaylor wrote: post #184
voltagex_ wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try living in Australia. It's a great country but Amazon won't ship many things to me.

This is particularly true for electronics. However, I've noticed that if the fulfiller is Amazon then there's a better chance of shipping an item to Australia. I can't remember what it was now, but I remember one item where storage option A was fulfilled by Amazon and would ship to AU but storage option B was fulfilled by another company who would NOT ship to AU. There's also an option somewhere to restrict search re…

The other trick I've used is shipping forwarders.

priceusa.com.au places the order for you and is closer to a personal shopper service (at a premium)

shipitto.com seems to be a mail redirector but has silly postal costs.

myus.com is similar to shipitto.com

Re: Amazon's minimum order size for free shipping is now $35

#187

Post by tomkarlo »

cylinder wrote: post #77
codegeek wrote: post #17

I am amazed at how amazon remains doing business with so low margins or no profits. We love amazon at my house and being Prime members, we are almost ordering everything under the sun from Amazon that we possibly can. Here is why we love it: - The reviews are actually useful. I just bought a 70 inch TV through amazon and the critical and helpful reviews really helped me get going with settings on the TV that would ha…

I love Prime, but there's no way that shipping a 20-roll pack of paper towels[1] that cost less than the store, in a giant cardboard box, in two days via an airplane to my door, is sustainable. They are taking a loss, even factoring in the membership fees, and at some point they won't be able to get away with it any longer. [1] Or a big heavy television. Or anything else you can find on Amazon.

Amazon very carefully tracks the profitability of each SKU they sell. If they're selling it to you, they've figured out how to do it profitably. Consider that you'd pay a similar price for it in a retail store, where it had to be handled multiple times, stocked on a shelf, subject to theft and loss, etc. - there's enough margin to cover that, so if Amazon can drop it in a box and ship it to you for less, they can make money on it.

Re: Amazon's minimum order size for free shipping is now $35

#188

Post by tomkarlo »

mwfunk wrote: post #121
cylinder wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love Prime, but there's no way that shipping a 20-roll pack of paper towels[1] that cost less than the store, in a giant cardboard box, in two days via an airplane to my door, is sustainable. They are taking a loss, even factoring in the membership fees, and at some point they won't be able to get away with it any longer. [1] Or a big heavy television. Or anything else you can find on Amazon.

I don't know why this got any downvotes, it's absolutely true. If someone's going to downvote something, they should always at least comment on what they don't like about it.

It's not necessarily true. It's just idle / uninformed speculation with almost no insight into Amazon's internal operations or supporting facts. That's why it's getting downvoted.

Just because he doesn't know how they can do it profitably doesn't mean they don't know how to do it profitably.

Re: Amazon's minimum order size for free shipping is now $35

#189

Post by Nick_C »

voltagex_ wrote: post #186
ajtaylor wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is particularly true for electronics. However, I've noticed that if the fulfiller is Amazon then there's a better chance of shipping an item to Australia. I can't remember what it was now, but I remember one item where storage option A was fulfilled by Amazon and would ship to AU but storage option B was fulfilled by another company who would NOT ship to AU. There's also an option somewhere to restrict search re…

The other trick I've used is shipping forwarders. priceusa.com.au places the order for you and is closer to a personal shopper service (at a premium) shipitto.com seems to be a mail redirector but has silly postal costs. myus.com is similar to shipitto.com

Just to note it's priceusa.com.au .

Re: Amazon's minimum order size for free shipping is now $35

#190

Post by pjlegato »

icebraining wrote: post #119
unsigner wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the sufficiently left mind, you are unworthy to spend your own money, the state will spend them better; thus, passing savings to you is bad for you.

The existence of the state is inseparable from the existence of slavery. -- Marx (who apparently was not "sufficiently left" - or maybe you're just ignorant of what the Left defends. Protip: the Democrats are not "left" by any reasonable standard)

'This is Armenian Radio; our listeners asked us: "We are told that Communism is already seen at the horizon, when the state will wither away." Then, what is a horizon?”

We’re answering: “Horizon is an imaginary line which moves away each time you approach it.”'

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