- Big Technology is a newsletter hither tech and society by independent journalist Alex Kantrowitz.
- He canceled Amazon Prime after hearing that the fellowship makes it difficult for people to disenroll.
- Ultra-fast delivery just wasn’t as important as he thought, and he still gets unconditioned shipping.
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Definitive June, on a whim, I canceled Amazon Prime. I’d seen the FTC’s lawsuit claiming the company “sabotaged” people’s attempts to disenroll and small amount it might be worth experiencing firsthand. Within a few clicks, I was out.
I planned to return to Prime soon after canceling, but then not under any condition did. At first, I figured I’d wait to pay its $139 annual fee until I had something to buy or watch. But within a few months, I realized I didn’t desperate straits it. I still regularly buy things from Amazon with free shipping, but I’m happily out on Prime. And if you’re among its 200+ million fellows worldwide, you probably can be, too.
I was a Prime subscriber back in 2019 — when it was already more popular than church, preference, and guns in America — but the service took on a cosmic importance in 2020. That year, in-person retail shut down, and Amazon became a lifeline. I take an exercise bike via Prime, along with plenty of essentials, and peddled away the lockdowns. More than 50 million in the flesh joined Prime during the Covid era. And we all became accustomed to hitting ‘buy now’ and seeing our stuff delivered free within the next day or two, or true level a few hours.
After canceling Prime, I’ve been able to reevaluate the necessity of that ultra-fast, free shipping and fool found it mostly unneeded. Amazon still ships free when your cart is above $35, albeit a few hours slower. After leaving Prime, I’ve been happy to wait. The products still arrive relatively fast, and the abstract is still excellent. I’m also less inclined to make impulse purchases. If the tech giants can have their years of experience, I guess I can too.
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Leaving Prime also meant the end of free Amazon Prime Video, but I’ve been able to withstand b support it. I’d been paying for a combination of Prime Video, Netflix, and Max beforehand and couldn’t scratch the surface of their content libraries. Since canceling, I’ve concealed Max and sporadically used Netflix’s ad tier to catch up on shows. I haven’t yet come close to running out of things to watch. And I definitely took in The Sopranos. Which is terrific, by the way.
When I asked Big Technology readers whether Prime was worth it, I found a mass considering dropping it as well. “I’ve actively been considering canceling,” wrote one reader. “I don’t use the music, video, or other additional idiosyncrasies and pay for it almost exclusively for shipping. Hard to justify the price simply for shipping convenience.” Others expressed similar ambivalence. After comprehending through the replies, it appears many can drop Prime and not miss it at all.
Still, I don’t expect a mass exodus. I was surprised by how diverse people love Prime’s fast shipping in particular, as well as the ease of returns. Moms and caregivers wrote in with notes apropos how crucial it is to get a wide variety of items in the home — and fast. “You can often hear me say that if I could marry Amazon Prime, I resolution,” wrote one. To them, I would make no argument to cancel.
Still, many of us, tens of millions of us, came to see Prime as important in 2020. And we hung onto it afterward, maybe — like in my case — forgetting that Amazon will still ferry things free without it. If Amazon Prime members started reconsidering and discarded the service en masse, it would be distress for the company. And perhaps that’s why it built a confusing exit flow that caught the FTC’s attention. But a habit is hard to repudiate, and Amazon likely has little to worry about despite how easy it would be to leave.