Amazon sells some products to Prime members only

[ActionableMango]

So I get that Prime has benefits like faster shipping, free shipping, video, audio, books, and exclusive or early access to special deals.

What surprises me is that I'm starting to see normal, physical, retail products I'm trying to buy are not for sale to me at all because I'm not a Prime member. I've seen this three times now:

Just to be clear, it's not just that Prime membership is needed to get a special deal or sale price...it's literally that the item is sold only to Prime members.

And it's pretty mundane stuff, nothing special. In my three cases it was a small LEGO set, cat food, and now today a Blu-ray disc. No big deal, I just ordered the disc somewhere else at the same price (I had a friend with Prime check the price just to see).

But that's a lost sale for Amazon, so why not sell it to me? Is Amazon testing something? A big push toward required paid membership maybe? Perhaps when stock gets low, the remaining stock is limited for Prime members? Who knows.

 

[LizKat]

Yeah it might be temporary to accommodate their "subscribe and save" recurring orders, i.e. ensure enough at their hubs to make the next regular round of deliveries on popular items.

The Lego set and a specific Blu-Ray disc though, I dunno. No one subscribes to recurring orders on those. But it must relate somehow to inventory distribution or else the deal they have cut with a particular product manufacturer.

 

[Gutwrench]

View attachment 746140​

Oh sweet Jesus...What was it....what was it? I want it! I need it!

 

[velocityg4]

Perhaps a lot of people have stopped renewing their Prime membership and they are trying to tempt them back. Because an increasing number of items don't arrive in the guaranteed two business days, are add on items, cost a lot more than non-prime items, are Prime Pantry, &c. I was tempted but I did the math. Ultimately I order a lot of stuff. So, it was still worth it. Just less so.

More and more I feel like I'm subsidizing a video, music, kindle library and a bunch of other crap I don't use. When all I wanted was two day shipping.

You have to wonder. If they gave a shipping only option. As they do a video only option. How many people would drop the $100 a year Prime membership for shipping only?

 

[bopajuice]

I do order a lot from Amazon, and Prime's free shipping is a plus. I do use their music and video service, but when they added their Prime Unlimited, it kind of lost it's luster for me. Joining Prime to use their music and video service, Ok fine. But more and more I find the music I want to listen to requires ANOTHER subscription. No thanks.

 

[shinji]

I do order a lot from Amazon, and Prime's free shipping is a plus. I do use their music and video service, but when they added their Prime Unlimited, it kind of lost it's luster for me. Joining Prime to use their music and video service, Ok fine. But more and more I find the music I want to listen to requires ANOTHER subscription. No thanks.

Yeah, it's annoying. And songs that were previously included with Prime can stop being free and move into Amazon Music Unlimited.

 

[rhett7660]

Perhaps a lot of people have stopped renewing their Prime membership and they are trying to tempt them back. Because an increasing number of items don't arrive in the guaranteed two business days, are add on items, cost a lot more than non-prime items, are Prime Pantry, &c. I was tempted but I did the math. Ultimately I order a lot of stuff. So, it was still worth it. Just less so.

More and more I feel like I'm subsidizing a video, music, kindle library and a bunch of other crap I don't use. When all I wanted was two day shipping.

You have to wonder. If they gave a shipping only option. As they do a video only option. How many people would drop the $100 a year Prime membership for shipping only?

I would in a heart beat. While I do listen to the music, I don't subscribe to the prime music and can live without it. The shipping was the main reason I started to use prime.

 

[PaddyTB]

Perhaps a lot of people have stopped renewing their Prime membership and they are trying to tempt them back. Because an increasing number of items don't arrive in the guaranteed two business days, are add on items, cost a lot more than non-prime items, are Prime Pantry, &c. I was tempted but I did the math. Ultimately I order a lot of stuff. So, it was still worth it. Just less so.

More and more I feel like I'm subsidizing a video, music, kindle library and a bunch of other crap I don't use. When all I wanted was two day shipping.

You have to wonder. If they gave a shipping only option. As they do a video only option. How many people would drop the $100 a year Prime membership for shipping only?

I certainly would.

 

[Plutonius]

So I get that Prime has benefits like faster shipping, free shipping, video, audio, books, and exclusive or early access to special deals.

What surprises me is that I'm starting to see normal, physical, retail products I'm trying to buy are not for sale to me at all because I'm not a Prime member. I've seen this three times now:

View attachment 746140​

Just to be clear, it's not just that Prime membership is needed to get a special deal or sale price...it's literally that the item is sold only to Prime members.

And it's pretty mundane stuff, nothing special. In my three cases it was a small LEGO set, cat food, and now today a Blu-ray disc. No big deal, I just ordered the disc somewhere else at the same price (I had a friend with Prime check the price just to see).

But that's a lost sale for Amazon, so why not sell it to me? Is Amazon testing something? A big push toward required paid membership maybe? Perhaps when stock gets low, the remaining stock is limited for Prime members? Who knows.

Really not much of lose to you. I have been finding lately that I can get most of my items cheaper by shopping around. A Prime membership to many people means that they have to use Amazon. Also, Amazon doesn't price match any more except TVs.

It's more work but you are better off shopping around.

 

[Mousse]

I would in a heart beat. While I do listen to the music, I don't subscribe to the prime music and can live without it. The shipping was the main reason I started to use prime.

I buy so much stuff off Amazon, that getting Prime just for shipping makes sense. For some reason, I have never subscribed to Prime. I must have an unnatural aversion to subscriptions.

 

[Tomorrow]

My beef recently with Prime is that I've had multiple orders say Prime shipping is available, then the item arrives anywhere from 3-5 business days after I place the order. I'm not altogether happy paying a hundred bucks a year for free 2-day shipping and then not getting it when it's supposedly available.

 

[C DM]

My beef recently with Prime is that I've had multiple orders say Prime shipping is available, then the item arrives anywhere from 3-5 business days after I place the order. I'm not altogether happy paying a hundred bucks a year for free 2-day shipping and then not getting it when it's supposedly available.

Have you followed up with Amazon about it? They would typically look into it and do something about it (at the very least provide some credit/extension on the membership, which isn't as helpful as far as getting things on time, but at least gets them to face it and perhaps do something about it).

 

[gkarris]

I remember some store had a videogame on sale for $20 (normally $50) - was sold out everywhere but Amazon had them but you had to be a Prime Member to buy it at that price..

After the sale was over Amazon made it available to everyone for their $45 normal price...