The "no minimum order size" statement about Prime is a bit disingenuous. Many low-cost items are now Add-On Items (http://amzn.to/1a4NFBI), meaning that Amazon will only ship them in an order of at least $25.
Prime has become a bit less useful over the past year due to the introduction of Add-On Items.
The thing that's really annoying about the whole "Add-On Items" bit is that they won't ship them AT ALL, even if I want to pay to have them shipped. Forget the free shipping thing - they won't even let me pay shipping and just send it to me.
One of the great utilities of Prime (and Amazon in general) is that it saves me a trip to Wal-Mart for smaller items. Need a pack of Sharpies? Ship it from Amazon, because a trip to Wal-Mart is an hour of my time wasted and a level of frustration that I really could do without. I'm willing to pay money for that convenience.
Well, I agree that it's somewhat less useful. There is an upside though, as shipping things has an environmental impact and people probably shouldn't be wasting a box + shipping on a missing cover for a food processor.
I don't think I've been bitten by an add-on item since they've introduced it. A food processor would definitely get you free shipping in two days via Prime, it is small items like a 6oz bottle of lotion that costs $1.99 that you can't get by itself.
You'd think the Add-On Items would ship with any Prime-eligible order. For example, I wanted to buy a staple gun for $9.50, which will ship with Prime, but the $3.59 staples are an Add-On Item, so I can't get the staples shipped with the staple gun without adding additional items to my order.
I agree, and there needs to be a mechanism to automatically save and ship add-on items when the conditions are met for free shipping.
And to your point about attaching them to a prime order, I would have to imagine Amazon is aware of this limitation and I wouldn't be surprised if they add this feature soon.
Yeah, I'd also like to see them allow you to attach Add-On items with your Subscribe & Save order. Subscribe & Save exists because it's cheaper to send it all at once, right? So why can't an Add-On item be put in that box?
Add-On items are items that are not economical enough to be in the Prime program by themselves but can be thrown in a box already on it's way to you. Without the Add-On program they would not be Prime shippable at all.
Therefore Add-On items are just an improvement to Prime.
Not true. I just placed an order with two add-on items (totaling $7) and one non-add-on item ($20). The two add-on items were shipped separately.
Also, I'm pretty sure everything that's actually sitting in an Amazon warehouse is prime-eligible. The stuff that isn't is the stuff going through 3rd party sellers that don't use fulfillment by Amazon.
The intent is for add-ons to ship in a box with the main Prime order. This doesn't always happen due to the combination of what you order and the locations of the items across Amazon's fulfillment network. When this happens Amazon is eating the cost of those extra shipments and is considered a 'miss' by the inventory folks.
Everything in the warehouse is not prime. If fact, an item can flip from prime to not prime in near real time if the most accessible inventory is used up and all that is left is the stuff in the 'reserve' areas of the warehouse. This is the area where the giant boxes of inventory stored. Grabbing inventory from there involves pulling it down, opening, pulling apart eaches, and then stowing in fast access areas.
Before the concept of add-on items, anything shipped and sold by Amazon was eligible for prime. Add-on items are actually a limitation to prime, from a consumer/user standpoint.
Amazon has always had both Prime and non-Prime products in their inventory. Usually, 3rd party sellers are non-Prime, although some choose to use the Amazon Prime shipping system (and their products cost commensurately more). Also, products with thin profit margins, such as textbooks, quite often were and are not Prime.
Not exactly, there were items I buy regularly that used to be Prime eligible and were moved to add-on items. Amazon was borderline lying about that because they removed it from being Prime eligible for 1-2 days and then made it an Add On Item.
While the Add-On Item thing is annoying, I have to admit, there were a few times in the past where I've ordered small items that were shipped for free and I couldn't help but think it was pretty dumb that Amazon was doing that. Such a waste of resources.
Prime has become a bit less useful over the past year due to the introduction of Add-On Items.