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Comment by sirkneeland | Hacker News Reader

First reaction: "NOOOOOOOO"

Second reaction: "It appears this does NOT apply to Amazon Prime."

I am assuming this is gamed to drive further conversion to Prime membership then.

Likely. Amazon seems to have made it clear that if you don't have Prime, they'd :RATHER: you shopped somewhere else. Arbitrary sets of items like certain Blu-ray discs or even like... razor blade replacements and diapers will randomly get set as "Prime exclusive items" for no reason with no warning.

Suddenly, buying a $10 Blu-ray requires you buy a $100 Prime subscription to go with it. And customers have found that usually, Target or Best Buy's websites offer the same products at the same price with free shipping... without Prime.

Here's a thread with 248 people complaining, and Amazon definitely not caring: http://www.amazon.com/forum/amazon/ref=cm_cd_pg_oldest?_enco...

Amazon is very quickly turning into the online version of Costco, and I think they've decided they're okay with that.

Frankly, I think it's a fair deal.

I gladly pay the Prime fee and in return can be very sure that products will arrive tomorrow. I value that certainty and immediate availability. And that's not even considering the video and music services which I don't use that much.

I never said it wasn't a fair deal. It is, if you want it. But if arrival timing isn't critical, and you don't order enough time sensitive items for it to be worth it, and you don't watch Prime Video, it may not be a good purchase for you.

Prime is a very good service, but it isn't for everyone. Amazon is seemingly telling everyone who it isn't for to take a hike.

That's true, but without the 15% profit margin cap that wholesale clubs have. Lately I've found that certain Prime items (home decor and kitchen stuff) are 20-25% more expensive than what I can get them for locally.

Amazon prices change constantly. Even minute-to-minute sometimes.

At least on most of the stuff I've checked on CamelCamelCamel, Amazon has the lowest price on something maybe one day out of ten. Which is another way they push you towards Prime; if you have Prime, setting a price alert and buying it the day the price is the cheapest on Amazon is simple (assuming you can wait). If you're trying to combine items to get non-Prime free shipping, though, one item might be cheapest but the rest almost certainly won't.

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