Amazon has just announced that they’re removing the $25 order requirement to qualify for free shipping. This change affects all customers, including non-Prime members. An exact date for when this change will end has not been set, but Amazon says it is for the “holiday season.” The change goes into effect today, so all items that previously required a $25 minimum order to ship for free will now be delivered at no charge, regardless of how little you spend. Nothing has changed for Prime members, but this is great news for non-Prime members who had to previously bundle together several low-cost items to get free shipping.
IMO Walmart has Amazon dead to rights with its free instore pickup. With my local store they moved the pickup area to the front and have an employee monitoring it so the wait is nothing.
Since I switched, I’m spending less total money while still covering my basics.
There are still many, many things I buy from Amazon that Walmart doesn’t stock in their stores. And parking can be a mess. And there can still be a wait, at least in my store. And I partake in many of the non-shipping related Amazon benefits, especially Prime Video and the free monthly Kindle book. If it’s not available for in-store pickup, but ship to store is available… then I see no benefit. Still have to wait, AND have to go and get it.
I give Walmart a fraction of the business I give Amazon. I do use Best Buy in-store pickup quite a bit for electronics, which for some reason, I’m rarely willing to wait an extra day or two.
It is nice to see Amazon getting some more competition on these things though.
Guess it depends on your local store and what you buy. Mine isn’t too bad when it comes to parking and most of the stuff I need to purchase either requires bulk buying or Amazon Pantry.
Competition is good but it’s a bit worrying to think about will happen once these two stomp out everybody else.
With the latest significant increase, Prime members are paying for this.
Make new friends, but keep the old
One is Silver and the other Gold
Amazon ought to send Prime members a refund for the months they give everyone free shipping.
maybe a Christmas themed gift card.
Any news if this is / will be the same in the UK?
Not sure if @Elias knows about this. But, Metro by T-Mobile (formerly metropcs) offers free Amazon Prime with their $60 plan. Just FYI. https://www.metropcs.com/why.html
I’m on a Metro plan that’s 3 lines for $90 tax included, unlimited, with throttling kicking in somewhere around “way more bandwidth than I use”. Prime is still cheaper for me, since I think the equivalent three line Metro plan w/ Prime is $120 a month, or $30 more = $360 more a year = three times the cost of Prime.
8 days to get something from Amazon for non Prime members. Not worth it.
Fred, 8 days to get something from Amazon for non prime members might not be worth it but the point is you won’t wait 8 days on items that qualify for 2 day shipping. At least until christmas.
Where does it say non Prime members get two day shipping? I’ve never seen that on any item.
Fred, 8 days to get something from Amazon for non prime members might not be worth it but the point is you won’t wait 8 days on items that qualify for 2 day shipping. At least until christmas.
Second line of the story.
Amazon has just announced that they’re removing the $25 order requirement to qualify for free shipping. This change affects all customers, including non-Prime members
and
Nothing has changed for Prime members, but this is great news for non-Prime members who had to previously bundle together several low-cost items to get free shipping.