
If you’re not a Prime member, Amazon won’t sell you "The Last Jedi" - smacktoward
https://slate.com/technology/2018/04/amazon-is-letting-only-prime-members-buy-the-last-jedi-on-blu-ray-why.html
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Someone1234
Amazon has definitely become less consumer focused.

For two other examples, they used to price match themselves, then it was only
in the last 30 days, and now they just refuse unless you ship the product back
and ask for a refund/re-order.

But worse still, and nobody seems to have noticed this, Amazon has removed the
"Buying this elsewhere" from their Wish Lists. This started on Amazon (UK) but
has no been deployed to Amazon.com. That means that if someone is using an
Amazon Wish List your choices are either: Spoil the surprise, or buy it from
Amazon. That's even true if you buy the product from Amazon but a different
version/edition it doesn't match with the exact Wish List one (or forgot to
add it via the Wish List).

The "Buying this elsewhere" is still listed in Amazon's help[0], so I provided
screenshots showing what it now looks like[1]. Consequentially I'm now looking
for an alternative Wish List vendor I can recommend to friends and family that
does provide a "I purchased this elsewhere" option.

[0]
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=3058771)

[1] [https://i.imgur.com/b6KDNqt.png](https://i.imgur.com/b6KDNqt.png)

~~~
auxbuss
I've almost managed to avoid Amazon over the past 12 months or so. There are
plenty of alternatives, and I've found the alternatives much more reliable,
and delivery times and communication much better.

In addition, the alternatives are often far cheaper; books, especially.

I kind of regard Amazon as a hostile business these days. If I have to buy
something from them, I feel like I need to wear gloves and wash my hands
after.

~~~
haZard_OS
What alternatives do you use for books? I'm dying to find an excuse to let my
Amazon Prime account lapse.

~~~
auxbuss
Mostly, I use Abe.

~~~
mritun
FYI, Abebooks is a fully owned subsidiary of Amazon.com

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ocdtrekkie
The article suggests this is to a business spat with competitors in the video
space, but that misses the overall reality of Prime-only items: That Amazon
regularly and arbitrarily marks large swaths of items as Prime exclusive for
no other reason than to force people into subscribing to Prime. This can
include older Blu-rays that aren't hot items at all, to regular daily items
like diapers and shaver blades.

If you try and add a Prime exclusive item to your cart and check out, they'll
automatically add the Prime subscription cost to your cart. This is really the
sole purpose of this maneuver. And given that it's been recently said that
Prime has over 100 million subscribers, this dark pattern seems to work pretty
well.

~~~
ninkendo
It almost makes me want to cancel my prime subscription that I've had for 8
years. I really hate rewarding companies for this kind of behavior.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
This is why I refuse to remain a Prime subscriber. I do use the monthly plan
once or twice a year (particularly the Christmas shopping season), when I know
I can advantageously receive a massive amount of value out of it.

(If you have Prime and buy a new $60 video game, you get like $14 off, so
buying Prime for a month if you're going to buy a game is pretty much free.)

Not being a Prime subscriber has afforded me often finding cheaper prices
elsewhere. I buy from Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Newegg, etc.

As for when I do shop Amazon: I wait until I have an order big enough for free
shipping, which often means I am more hesitant to buy things rapidly and have
more time to consider my purchases, it keeps my spending down overall.

------
smacktoward
My read on this is that it's Amazon taking another step towards their long-
term endgame in retail.

Amazon is one of the few companies out there that thinks in the long term.
Like the Cylons in the reimagined _Battlestar Galactica_ , they Have A Plan.
And in retail, that plan has been to leave money on the table in order to
build the biggest, most loyal customer base possible -- until such a time as
their position in the marketplace was unassailable, at which point they would
flip the switch and start milking those loyal customers for all they were
worth.

I wrote a little bit about the first signs that the switch had flipped a
couple of years ago: [https://jasonlefkowitz.net/2015/07/amazon-the-screw-
begins-t...](https://jasonlefkowitz.net/2015/07/amazon-the-screw-begins-to-
turn/)

 _> Why would you need to pay for Prime if the free shipping they offer to
everyone already works fine for you? It’s a good question. To which Amazon’s
easiest answer would be to simply change the free shipping so that it doesn’t
work fine for you so much anymore. Suddenly you have a reason to shell out
those ninety-nine smackers..._

 _> Amazon has spent twenty years now attracting shoppers with goodies like
fast, free shipping. But businesses don’t give out goodies without expecting
to make money off them at some point; so fast, free shipping quietly becomes a
choice: fast shipping, or free shipping. “Customer delight” becomes
“fulfillment operations” to be “optimized.”_

~~~
bhhaskin
Not disagreeing with your point. But a fun bit of trivia. The Cylons never
actually had a plan in the show. According to creator Ronald D Moore, they
intended to come up with something later, but never did.

~~~
smacktoward
Hee. Yeah, by the middle of season 3 or so it was clear that the _BSG_
writer's room had a big banner hanging in it that read "FIGURE IT OUT LATER."

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daemonk
I am not supporting a side here. But what exactly is the practical or moral
issue with this? Is it that Amazon is squeezing money out of people who want
the movie but probably won't use the Prime service otherwise? Is it false
advertising where Amazon claims to cater to everyone, but you really only
benefit if you use their Prime service?

~~~
ocdtrekkie
It's just a terrible way to treat your customers, that's all.

I get having exclusive discounts/pricing. But when you say "subscribe or go
elsewhere, we won't sell this to you"... I go elsewhere.

It feels like Amazon has moved very far away from the "focus on the customer"
approach they used to have. They should never be giving me a reason to buy
from a different store.

~~~
dleslie
You cannot go elsewhere for digital exclusives or very new releases; unless by
elsewhere you mean to violate copyright.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
I was specifically speaking of physical items you can generally buy at other
retailers, like Blu-ray discs or diapers. Most "Prime exclusive" items are
sold elsewhere. Like Best Buy.

One of the months I _was_ forced to get Prime and was very angry about it, was
that Amazon chose to make an "Amazon exclusive" Amiibo also "Prime exclusive".
So Nintendo only sold it to Amazon, and Amazon only sold it to Prime members.
If I didn't want to pay six times the cost on eBay, I had to get Prime.

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eberkund
They use similar deceptive practices with Audible. You can't cancel your
account without losing the credits you have already paid for. I believe this
works so well because people wishing to cancel probably have unused credits
but when they go to actually cancel they will have to think twice before
giving up their credits or searching for some books they want and then
cancelling.

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kazinator
So what; Costco won't sell you a can of beans if you aren't any kind of
member.

~~~
athenot
Costco won't sell you anything if you're not a member, so it's not a good
analogy.

It's more as if Target would refuse to sell you a certain size of diapers
unless you sign up for their credit card membership thingy.

~~~
Rebelgecko
Most Costcos will actually sell alcohol to nonmembers, as a probably
unintended result of some states' old blue laws.

~~~
kazinator
In some Costco locations non-members can get into the food court area to buy
Costco fast food. This is outside of the cash registers and the food vendors
don't check memberships.

~~~
adl
Interesting, in Mexico, Costco does check for membership at the food court,
but I think they don't at the pharmacy.

