Amazon gives non-Prime members free shipping at $35 or more of eligible items. Instead of simply letting users get the product with free shipping, they’ve added a discount that prices it exactly one cent below the $35 limit, while only subsidizing the price with $3.38, which is about half of what they’ll then charge you for shipping.
You could buy something cheap like soap But don’t they do free shipping if total order is above the limit ?
Can’t say I find this surprising, especially not coming from a #GAMAM. (Formerly #GAFAM)
In my day it was FAANG
That is a far more funny acronym. Especially for a Frenchy like me, since my peoples often say of the ones controlling such big corporations, “they have fangs so long, they scratch the floor”. (Well… “They scratch the parquet”, to be exact. But who care if the floor is made of wood or not at that point.)
wouldn’t it be AAMAM because Alphabet?
I say we keep the word we know
Except all of Alphabet entreprises have a name starting by Google. (Or at least strongly evocating it, in the case of Gmail.)
We can’t say the same about Meta. Instagram isn’t called “Facebook Gallery”, and Threads isn’t called “Facebook Short Messages”. (And Oculus didn’t become “Facebook VR”, just Meta.)
No, those are Google products, Alphabet is Google’s parent company and also holds many other companies like Waze and Doubleclick.
Except the team behind Waze was merged with the one behind Google Maps, they just keep the two apps separated (for now) to prevent any backlash. Same with Doubleclick and Google Adds. (In fact, I’ve got the impression Doubleclick became nothing more than an alias for Google Adds. And for quite some time, I might add.)
Order something really fucking heavy extra and refund it.
Very Amazon of them.
I don’t know if this is possible on Amazon, but on our local alternative (bol.com for the Dutchies) it is possible to buy e-books for one cent, which will get you free shipping. I have quite a selection of e-books I’ll probably never read, but which were just the right amount to get free shipping.
I don’t know if this is possible on Amazon
It’s certainly possible to get e-books for free, with only a very small amount of piracy.
Yes there are tons of free ebooks on amazon. Mostly classic literature that’s past copyright.
Not very helpful when you need that extra cent to get free shipping though, is it?
I bet this thing was actually worth only $25.
The markups have become insane on Amazon.
I remember when Amazon first started there were good deals on good quality items. Then as they secured a dominating position on the market prices started going up but at least the low quality junk items were relatively rare and easy to identify so it was worth a little premium. Then they got rid of that and now it’s almost all overpriced junk items sold by shady sellers now.
I almost never use Amazon now unless it’s for something specific that I can’t find anywhere else.
IFixit is generally good quality/value in my experience if it’s actually them and not some knockoff/drop shipper. Granted haven’t had a need to buy anything of theirs for years because the one I have keeps being great.
That kit is $40 on their site. Weird that it’s cheaper on Amazon in the first place.
That kit is $40 on their site. Weird that it’s cheaper on Amazon in the first place.
No, Amazon does this on purpose. If you want to sell on Amazon, the search and recommendation algorithms will make your product hard to find unless you have Amazon fulfillment. But if you sign up for Amazon fulfillment, not only do you have to give Amazon a bigger cut of the price, you have to agree to never sell your product for less than Amazon does, even on your own website with your own fulfillment.
The FTC sued Amazon for this practice, and that case is progressing. But who knows if the Trump administration is going to maintain the lawsuit, or if the court will rule against Amazon.
They do, but I’ve also seen it the other way around, where the price on Amazon is the price on the manufacturers site plus shipping. Usually for more reputable/niche products. IFixit I would’ve thought would be big/popular enough to do that but I guess not.
For an academic text on this subject with footnotes, I recommend Chokepoint Capitalism (2022) by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow. It calls what you describe “moat buulding” and an “anti-competitive flywheel”.
I remember when Amazon first started there were good deals on good quality items
I remember when the primary use of amazon was buying secondhand items. The deals on used discs for PS2 or gamecube were amazing. It was ebay without bidding.
I remember when you pretty much only used Amazon to buy books
The amount of small items that should only be a couple of bucks selling for $10 or more on Amazon is insane
They inflate price to offset shipping costs for prime members. This hits cheaper items harder. They used to have add-on items to get around this but I haven’t seen that in a while.
I still sometimes find cheap things that are reasonably priced. These keystone wall plates for Ethernet/HDMI/etc are 99 cents for example: https://a.co/d/hAYsejh
now it’s almost all overpriced junk items sold by shady sellers now.
It’s not too bad if you avoid all third-party sellers and only buy items sold by Amazon directly.
Unfortunately, other stores are going in the same direction. Walmart’s and Target’s sites both have third-party sellers on them now too, and you need to remember to filter them out.
In this case, it’s 39.95 retail price. but I bet a lot of these things aren’t priced right
I’ve actually added very low cost items to my cart, made sure free returns from Amazon only, and returned it. Two can play that game Amazon!
If you return ‘too many’ items they may suspend or even ban your account. I’m not sure what the threshold is.
When I did this (I actually ended up not needing the item), they refunded the item minus the shipping cost, so…
When you choose the option of why you returned it, some include not covering the shipping cost.
Try choosing something else next time.
Just by something costing .01
Like what?
Digital items, but Amazon intentionally makes them impossible to find. There’s a ton of e-books and Audiobooks that are $0.01 - $0.05, but Amazon intentionally buries them under the “free with Kindle subscription” crap, so that people can’t milk this without really putting in the effort
Half cent piece
People didn’t know this? I mean Amazon is evil shit. But companies have been doing stuff like this for 30 years…
I’d just never seen this specific flavor of bullshittery from them before. Encouraging sellers to keep prices below the shipping limit is one thing, but adding discounts artificially no matter what the actual seller prices their product at is a whole new level of making things worse for everyone involved.
Sellers have a lower likelihood of a non-Prime member buying their item, users don’t get free shipping.
They likely have an algo running to do this just like how they offer random coupons to entice you to buy items in your cart, and all the other tricks around shipping manipulation.
its a strategy, theyre not even being deceitful here, just pricing to their interests. theres so much evil stuff they do, but this example isn’t properly evil.
No, this is just an example of a lesser evil that we’ve grown accustomed to.
Stop using Amazon
I’ve switched to eBay. The delivery time is often the same and the returns are ok too
A few years ago I mused that we might see the day when eBay becomes a more trustworthy platform to purchase on than Amazon. I’m not sure when exactly the streams crossed but I think we are past it now
Hm, my experiences with e-Bay have been pretty bad (hard to return items or get customer support involved when something is wrong). I’ve had better luck with just random mid-sized buisnesses or directly ordering from the manufacturer.
That happened years ago. Better search and more trustworthy sellers since products aren’t co-mingled. No way is some seller with years of positive reviews going to send you broken junk and not try to make it right.
I agree.
Amazon is difficult to find what you want if you are searching for a specific brand or item. It shows you many options.
To me it seems like Amazon wants to sell you something as long as the make a sale. Whether it is what you actually wanted is a distant second.
I been going to ebay more recently. What I do is try to decipher the Amazon reviews and then go to ebay, even though I have Prime. My headlamp led was less expensive on ebay by 50%!
I wish I could do more shopping there, but eBay in Canada is extremely expensive which has lead to it being kind of a ghost town compared to the US. $20-$50 shipping fees, even on tiny items, is common.
So I’ve started to use AliExpress more often. Literally the exact same item on Amazon but without the markup - sometimes even half the price. It’s not a great solution but the online shopping selection here in Canada is awful.
I’ve found that a lot of stuff listed on Amazon is about the price of shipping higher than it is on eBay I guess to account for the free Prime shipping. If you don’t have Prime, there really isn’t much reason to not use eBay since you’d be getting doubly screwed without the free shipping on Amazon.
Just gotta avoid Amazon drop shippers. Thousands of feedback + free expedited shipping + free returns = maybe a drop shipper.
No, avoid alllll of amazon
Correct but eBay is full of shippers who drop ship from Amazon. You don’t want to go on eBay to accidentally end up ordering from Amazon.
And Amazon is full or drop shippers from AliExpress and Temu.
Oh sorry I may have misunderstood!
You have to offer free returns for top rated seller status. It puts you higher up in searches.
Ok but a common indicator of a drop shipper is all of the items I listed not just free returns.
Start using Amazon, but in an elaborate drop shipping scam where you sell a $.25 item for $38 and have Amazon pay you $3.99 to ship it to yourself as a proxy.
Nahh their workers still get exploited (even more than the average laborer)
Amazon will probably get future tax benifits in Luxembourg because of that loss caused by you.
It’s too convenient. Order something Sunday night, I’ll definitely have it by Tuesday afternoon if not earlier. I always wait until I have enough items I need over $50 before I place an order anyway.
In my area I can order something popular at midnight and receive it by 10am. If you’re in a major metro area, they can usually do next day, same day, and overnight on a lot of items.
Sure but you don’t need it. Yes it’s nice. But once I canceled prime I just order less junk I don’t need. It was like an addiction. Just browse oh that looks cool.
Oh, so that the reason for the random discounts I’ve been seeing lately? Well I never buy anything unless it’s above the minimum for free shipping and so far it hasn’t affected me (not that I buy often anyway )
I wanted to order something, but half a year of waiting seemed like a bit long. Refunded, got money back and ordered again. I still have half a year to wait, but I have mine money too. profit?
I am confused by this thread, do you only have Amazon and eBay in US?
weird place to cast shade
It’s not shade. Consume from a more ethical company.
Like…?
One that doesn’t fund Nazis?
Eating ass is the only ethical consumption under capitalism
Wrong. It’s also morally correct to eat the rich. 🥰
What annoys me is the price fixing
