{"id":2674,"date":"2012-04-30T08:17:29","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T13:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/?p=2674"},"modified":"2012-04-30T08:37:31","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T13:37:31","slug":"amazon-prime-i-heart-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon Prime, I Heart You"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not much of a stock-watcher these days, but I’ve seen a great deal of chatter on the internet regarding Amazon’s latest quarterly report<\/a>. Their stock (ticker: AMZN) blew out the roof upon announcement of Amazon’s apparently-fabulous earnings, and rose about 15 percent on Friday. Yay for AMZN longs, I guess, and “ouch” for AMZN shorts. (I am not a knowing holder of AMZN, though the funds my family owns may or may not own AMZN.)<\/p>\n

This gives me an opportunity to talk about not AMZN, the stock, but Amazon, the company. And it’s something Amazon-related which I think I’ve overlooked to this point:<\/p>\n

My household hearts Amazon Prime.<\/h3>\n

I love Amazon Prime<\/a>\"\". My wife loves Amazon Prime. I would contend that the $79\/year which Prime costs us is possibly the best $79 I spend each year, when looked at from a “No, really, I’m happy to spend it!” angle.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

It isn’t the availability of streaming movies which delights us, as we’re not big movie-watchers. And we haven’t taken advantage of the Kindle e-book borrowing services which Amazon recently unleashed. Yes, both of those services are fine and dandy. But for us, it’s all about the unlimited two-day shipping.<\/p>\n

Put simply: Short of groceries and clothing, there’s very little that I can’t find a better-than-anywhere-else price on when it’s on Amazon. And as long as it’s something we don’t need right now<\/b>, you can bet Amazon will get our money. <\/p>\n

But But But Local and B&M Businesses Are Suffering!<\/h3>\n

Does my buying of PC components<\/a>, Elixir electric-guitar strings, and damn near all books on Amazon mean that my local, bricks-and-mortar retailers lose business and\/or “suffer?”<\/p>\n

Absolutely it does.<\/p>\n

Do I really care?<\/p>\n

Most of the time, no. <\/p>\n

The way I see it, the local and bricks\/mortar retailers could’ve<\/b> targeted the internet shopper the way Amazon did, back in the day. But they elected not to do so. Amazon did what it did, and bricks\/mortar did what it did. One team won, and one team lost.<\/p>\n

Take, for instance, Best Buy. Lisa and I used to really enjoy visiting Best Buy. And we bought a fair amount of stuff from them over the years. But these days, it’s my opinion that Best Buy is nothing more than Amazon’s showroom, and a sparse, poorly-employed one at that. Something<\/a> tells me that I’m not alone in this view.<\/p>\n

Could I get strings and such for my Gibson Les Paul at a local music store? Sure I could. Would I pay roughly 40 percent more for them if I did this, rather than buy through Amazon? Yes. Yes I would. If I needed new strings right the heck now<\/b>, then spending locally is what I’d do. Otherwise, no. Amazon gets our cash. And we get our stuff in a couple of days, tops.<\/p>\n

Amazon Prime: Our Selling Points<\/h3>\n

Amazon Prime, how I love thee? Let me count the ways. Amazon Prime …<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Saves us gas money, as we don’t make special trips to buy this stuff. Nor do we have to drive around OKC or Dallas trying to find a retailer who has what we want in stock.<\/li>\n
  2. Saves time, for same reasons as above.<\/li>\n
  3. Saves headaches, as we don’t have to wait in line to buy what we need. (As a grumpy parent, I now officially hate standing in line to spend money.)<\/li>\n
  4. Means no more worrying about holding small-dollar purchases in Amazon’s cart to eventually qualify for Super Saver shipping. If I want to order a $14 cable on Monday and have it Wednesday, with no extra shipping fees, Amazon Prime makes it happen.<\/li>\n
  5. Means quicker access to Amazon’s vast product selection. And their buying\/checkout\/account-monitoring processes were already the best I’ve ever seen.<\/li>\n
  6. Is only helped by Amazon’s great customer service, which, the few times I’ve needed it, has been stellar. This, plus Prime benefits, means I have no problem giving them even more of our business.<\/li>\n
  7. Allows us to get next-day shipping for an additional $4 or $5 per item, when necessary. (Which isn’t often.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I could probably come up with a few more positives, but I think these pretty much cover it. As mentioned earlier, the moderate selection of free Amazon Instant Videos available to Prime members isn’t a big deal to us; rather, it’s just icing on the cake. (Though, I’ll admit, it is<\/b> more appealing now that Amazon Instant Video is available to PS3 owners, which we are.)<\/p>\n

    Anybody out there still “on the fence” with Amazon Prime?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’m not much of a stock-watcher these days, but I’ve seen a great deal of chatter on the internet regarding Amazon’s latest quarterly report. Their stock (ticker: AMZN) blew out the roof upon announcement of Amazon’s apparently-fabulous earnings, and rose about 15 percent on Friday. Yay for AMZN longs, I guess, and “ouch” for AMZN […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,48,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-deals","category-services"],"yoast_head":"\nAmazon Prime, I Heart You<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amazon Prime, I Heart You\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’m not much of a stock-watcher these days, but I’ve seen a great deal of chatter on the internet regarding Amazon’s latest quarterly report. Their stock (ticker: AMZN) blew out the roof upon announcement of Amazon’s apparently-fabulous earnings, and rose about 15 percent on Friday. Yay for AMZN longs, I guess, and “ouch” for AMZN […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Money Musings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-30T13:17:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-04-30T13:37:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=itsyourmone-20&l=ur2&o=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9d5b5e0cd8c50c2ff0f4a1df112a5a42\"},\"headline\":\"Amazon Prime, I Heart You\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-04-30T13:17:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-04-30T13:37:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/\"},\"wordCount\":786,\"commentCount\":1,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=itsyourmone-20&l=ur2&o=1\",\"articleSection\":[\"Books\",\"Deals\",\"Services\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/\",\"name\":\"Amazon Prime, I Heart You\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=itsyourmone-20&l=ur2&o=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-04-30T13:17:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-04-30T13:37:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9d5b5e0cd8c50c2ff0f4a1df112a5a42\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=itsyourmone-20&l=ur2&o=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=itsyourmone-20&l=ur2&o=1\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Amazon Prime, I Heart You\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/\",\"name\":\"Money Musings\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9d5b5e0cd8c50c2ff0f4a1df112a5a42\",\"name\":\"Michael\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ed3cc00ccbe418a46908aff759f0164eaa603a5944928ead8ba144229b89d7c?s=96&d=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdmproofing.com%2Fiym%2Fweblog%2Fwp-content%2Fthemes%2Fmusings%2Fimages%2Fuser.gif&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ed3cc00ccbe418a46908aff759f0164eaa603a5944928ead8ba144229b89d7c?s=96&d=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdmproofing.com%2Fiym%2Fweblog%2Fwp-content%2Fthemes%2Fmusings%2Fimages%2Fuser.gif&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ed3cc00ccbe418a46908aff759f0164eaa603a5944928ead8ba144229b89d7c?s=96&d=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdmproofing.com%2Fiym%2Fweblog%2Fwp-content%2Fthemes%2Fmusings%2Fimages%2Fuser.gif&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Michael\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/author\/Michael\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Amazon Prime, I Heart You","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Amazon Prime, I Heart You","og_description":"I’m not much of a stock-watcher these days, but I’ve seen a great deal of chatter on the internet regarding Amazon’s latest quarterly report. Their stock (ticker: AMZN) blew out the roof upon announcement of Amazon’s apparently-fabulous earnings, and rose about 15 percent on Friday. Yay for AMZN longs, I guess, and “ouch” for AMZN […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/","og_site_name":"Money Musings","article_published_time":"2012-04-30T13:17:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-04-30T13:37:31+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=itsyourmone-20&l=ur2&o=1","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Michael","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michael","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/"},"author":{"name":"Michael","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9d5b5e0cd8c50c2ff0f4a1df112a5a42"},"headline":"Amazon Prime, I Heart You","datePublished":"2012-04-30T13:17:29+00:00","dateModified":"2012-04-30T13:37:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/"},"wordCount":786,"commentCount":1,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=itsyourmone-20&l=ur2&o=1","articleSection":["Books","Deals","Services"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/","name":"Amazon Prime, I Heart You","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=itsyourmone-20&l=ur2&o=1","datePublished":"2012-04-30T13:17:29+00:00","dateModified":"2012-04-30T13:37:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9d5b5e0cd8c50c2ff0f4a1df112a5a42"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=itsyourmone-20&l=ur2&o=1","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=itsyourmone-20&l=ur2&o=1"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/04\/amazon-prime-i-heart-you\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Amazon Prime, I Heart You"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/","name":"Money Musings","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9d5b5e0cd8c50c2ff0f4a1df112a5a42","name":"Michael","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ed3cc00ccbe418a46908aff759f0164eaa603a5944928ead8ba144229b89d7c?s=96&d=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdmproofing.com%2Fiym%2Fweblog%2Fwp-content%2Fthemes%2Fmusings%2Fimages%2Fuser.gif&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ed3cc00ccbe418a46908aff759f0164eaa603a5944928ead8ba144229b89d7c?s=96&d=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdmproofing.com%2Fiym%2Fweblog%2Fwp-content%2Fthemes%2Fmusings%2Fimages%2Fuser.gif&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ed3cc00ccbe418a46908aff759f0164eaa603a5944928ead8ba144229b89d7c?s=96&d=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdmproofing.com%2Fiym%2Fweblog%2Fwp-content%2Fthemes%2Fmusings%2Fimages%2Fuser.gif&r=g","caption":"Michael"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/author\/Michael\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2674"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2731,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674\/revisions\/2731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}