Another Prime Day, the consumer shopping holiday created by Amazon, has come and gone. Like usual, this one was the “biggest Prime Day event ever,” Amazon declared in a press release yesterday. Prime members who pay $139 per year or $14.99 per month (£79/year or £7.99/month in the UK, a bargain considering how the pound has collapsed against the dollar recently) bought more than 300 million items this year at a rate of 100,000 per minute. Top sellers included the Apple Watch, Pampers diapers, Oral-B electric toothbrushes, Levi’s apparel, and Le Creuset kitchenware. These are the sort of useless details that Amazon loves to dish out every year after Prime Day, while sharing very little information that actually helps to decipher the scope and reach of its annual consumer bonanza.
For all the money and hype that has gone into the ‘instant’ delivery space, Prime still sets the bar when it comes to consumer delivery subscriptions. Amazon’s sprawling, ever-expanding consumer membership includes unlimited free shipping (originally two days, now often much faster), access to Prime Video and Amazon Music, unlimited photo storage, ultrafast grocery delivery in thousands of cities and towns, free delivery on prescriptions from Amazon Pharmacy, and now in the U.S. a year of free delivery from Grubhub. Uber taught us to expect a ride at the touch of a button but Amazon taught us to expect instant gratification in practically every aspect of life. A Prime subscription takes an entire world of consumer goods and says look, you can have any of these things in two days or less, all it takes is a click.
Amazon sales surged during the pandemic, led by some 200 million Prime subscribers. Global lockdowns made Prime a lifeline for many people who were unable or wary of shopping in person with a dangerous new virus on the loose. But superfast shipping comes with a cost, especially as it gets faster and harder to bundle items together, leading to more dispatches and deliveries. The World Economic Forum projects that e-commerce demand will lead to 36% more delivery vehicles in global cities by 2030, spurring huge growth in emissions and congestion without any sort of intervention. New York City is already drowning in packages, with daily deliveries topping 3.6 million by one estimate, a clear factor in New York’s status as the most congested city in the U.S.
I cancelled my Prime account three years ago and have no regrets. Admittedly I’ve lived in big cities (New York, London) where almost everything I need is a 10-15 minute walk from home. But I think people tend to forget that you can also still use Amazon without Prime! The main difference is that without Prime, you typically need a minimum order of $25/£25 to qualify for free shipping, which can take five or so days (though in my experience it often shows up in two). That means that 1) you have to wait a bit longer for your order and 2) you’re less likely to make impulse purchases, because you need enough items in the same basket to clear that $25 threshold. Sure, if you’re used to things showing up the same day you click buy, 3-5 days might feel like forever but I promise you it’s not. And as I’ve said before, there just aren’t that many things that you need both urgently and unexpectedly such that you can’t plan a bit ahead and have them when you need them. Maybe prescription medications. Maybe certain toiletries or household staples that run out suddenly. Certainly groceries and other fresh items, which is one reason why grocery is its own category.
As easy as it is to buy something on Amazon, it’s much harder to cancel your Prime account. When I did it in 2019, Amazon made me click through several pages of warnings and messages about Prime benefits before finally allowing me to cancel. That’s about to change in Europe and the UK, where Amazon agreed to simplify its cancellation process to two clicks following a complaint by EU consumer groups that accused Amazon of “manipulative design techniques” or “dark patterns.” It’s unclear if Amazon will make similar changes in the U.S.
Of course, everyone has different reasons for subscribing to things, and Prime is a huge boon to a lot of households. You might also get value from other perks like TV or music, or access to grocery deliveries. Prime is a really good service, which is why so many people choose to subscribe and come back year after year after year (that and automated payments). What I’d say instead is that it’s 100% to keep using Amazon without Prime, and the small amount of friction you get as a non-Prime user—slower deliveries, minimum order values—can actually make you a more conscious consumer. To me, it’s a win-win.