Amazon Prime is raising its membership fee for the first time in four years. The service goes to $139 per year, up from $119. The slow boil of the frog that is inflation continues unabated. Netflix also recently hiked its rates; the top 4K tier of service is now $20 a month. I sure hope your account gets shared between four people to lessen the cost burden. Have you ordered food from DoorDash recently? The prices of every restaurant has gone up. Though here in San Francisco that may have something to do with the minimum wage increase too.
The $20 increase is not going to make me cancel my subscription. Amazon knows this, of course. I bet the vast majority of Prime users will simply shrug off the price hike like its nothing. With about 150 million subscribers, that’s a quick and handy profit (150 x $20) of $3 billion dollars. Just a figurative flick of the switch. The law of large numbers is indeed amazing.
The reason I’m not cancelling is because I make the annual fee back in credit card points. The Amazon Prime Visa card gives 5% back on all purchases done on Amazon (and Whole Foods) - so long as you are a subscriber to Prime. WIth the large amount of spending I do with Amazon, I make more than enough money back to at least break even on membership fee. All the while I’m enjoying the benefits of free two-day shipping, and the vast catalog of shows on Prime Video.
That said, it’s certainly not great to see the price going up, not only with Amazon Prime but seemingly everywhere. I’ve certainly used DoorDash way less these days. Order of a single item is at least $20 dollars now, once factoring in all the fees and tips. It’s really handy to live within walking distance to a mall with decent food options.
The tiny yet mighty.