Amazon Prime is a remarkable success but also dystopian. It has made convenience and speed the norm, habituating consumers to buy more products. Prime’s flywheel effect - where more customers lead to more data and scale which attracts more customers - has fueled Amazon’s dominance. Prime subscribers spend twice as much and Amazon’s value has multiplied 97 times since 2005. While canceling Prime may not hurt Amazon, it can benefit local businesses by gaining a new customer. However, Prime has rewired how people think about what is possible to obtain and how fast, making a Prime-free life unimaginable for many.
I only have prime because it’s VERY cheap in poland - it costs ~ $10/YEAR. I don’t even really buy stuff on amazon, it’s just for prime video and the gaming rewards.
Wow, the half off student price ten years ago was $50/year in the US. You get it incredibly cheap!