Amazon Prime Savings?

[Southern Ivy]

So, I know that the savings on shipping is always great with Prime. What about the savings on household items - laundry detergent, diapers, cleaning supplies? 

We have a membership at Sam's Club, but I'm wondering if the savings is better via Prime. 

I know it's a very generic question as there are always good savings and items that are more expensive. Just asking for general experience. 

[TammyS]

When I've looked at stuff like that on Amazon, I always feel like it's comparable to Walmart, and often more expensive.  I think they have to jack up the price, because a lot of that stuff is heavy to ship.

[SeaConquest]

I used to buy all of that from Amazon, but since Jet.com came out, I am shopping there more often. The prices are much better, and I don't pay taxes or membership fees. Bonus!

[redsquirrel]

I don't have a sam's club, nor would I be likely to shop at one of those large quantity type stores. I don't have the space for huge amounts of things, so it doesn't make sense for me.  And there are only 4 of us, not 14, so the food will go stale before we finish it up.  My sister got some dishwasher detergent at a BJs and it got all hard before she could finish it up.  It doesn't save money if you can't go through it quickly enough.

 

I find the savings with Prime to be great.  I use it mostly for things I can't get locally.  For example, there is a particular type of floss that my kids need. It is made for kids with braces and they both have braces.  I could get it occasionally from Target, but not consistently. And, I rarely get up to the mall so going up once a month for floss was sort of stupid, especially if they weren't going to have it.  But with Prime, I could set up a regular delivery of that floss and we always have it. And it cost about half of what Target what charging, no small thing when one stupid box of 30 cost 5$.  However, on Prime it is 2.50 a box and they have it every single month. No more running out.

 

I don't buy detergent or those sorts of things from Amazon b/c I am not brand loyal.  I buy whatever is cheapest.  And I stock up on things when they are on sale locally.  Wegmans had Tide laundry detergent on  a big sale this summer, so I just bought one jug a week when I went shopping. I think I have 8 large bottles lined up next to the washing machine. That will last us a very long time. When that starts to run out I will look for the next big sale on laundry detergent.

 

I have a friend who has automatic delivery of things like toilet paper and tooth brushes and a bunch of stuff.  I am guessing it is cheaper than where we live b/c her husband set it up and he is very careful about such things.

 

[Cottonwood]

i dont use amazon prime unless im getting a good deal (as opposed to family members that just use it for everything because they have it).  that being said, DS was begging for the Pixels movie, which was $20+ everywhere  else. i ordered it for 12.99 shipped from AP.  He was also in the market for an RC helicopter and after much research he ordered it from AP for $35 shipped.  nearest price otherwise was around $55.  for house hold stuff its more hit and miss for me because i shop at the Commisarry on base which is the cheapest thing anywhere so i dont get anything paper wise on AP except cases of toilet paper and a case of sevÄ“nth generation dish soap. if youre a careful shopper, you will be able to use it to get good deals on things with the free shipping.  my cranky old father absolutely insists "they get you somewhere.... either coming of going!".  And without ever having used AP before, he insists they raise prices on the products to compensate for free shipping.  well i never find that to be so.  just be a comparison shopper  i even buy clothes on Amazon!  .  oh and my sister, mother andd I went in on the price of the membership so for $33 a year, i am coming out way ahead.   i always  check amazon first,.  i looked into Jet and some of those other sites that are similar and wasnt impressed.  maybe once theyve been around a while and build up more stock.

 

 

 

[Arcadia]

We don't have Prime. However we used Amazon for Pampers when kids were babies and toilet paper now when the price is lower than Walmart/Target/Safeway. It is easy to hit $35 on those items and get free shipping. It is also nice to have bulky items deliver to my doorstep since we stay in a condo and it is a walk from car to main door lugging those stuff.

 

We mainly use amazon for bulky items and delivery is fast for us without Prime since we are urban and near a warehouse.

 

ETA:

My Walmart prices can be worse than the Target across the street from it. It used to be cheaper a few years ago.

[forty-two]

When I've looked at stuff like that on Amazon, I always feel like it's comparable to Walmart, and often more expensive.  I think they have to jack up the price, because a lot of that stuff is heavy to ship.

 

Yep, this is my experience, too.  It's annoying, because everyone talks about the awesome Prime savings with groceries/toiletries and I'd love to be able to take advantage of it, but it's never any better than what I'm already paying at Wal-Mart.  IDK, maybe I'm not looking at the right things?

[Southern Ivy]

I used to buy all of that from Amazon, but since Jet.com came out, I am shopping there more often. The prices are much better, and I don't pay taxes or membership fees. Bonus!

I haven't heard of Jet.com. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for that tip. 

 

I don't have a sam's club, nor would I be likely to shop at one of those large quantity type stores. I don't have the space for huge amounts of things, so it doesn't make sense for me.  And there are only 4 of us, not 14, so the food will go stale before we finish it up.  My sister got some dishwasher detergent at a BJs and it got all hard before she could finish it up.  It doesn't save money if you can't go through it quickly enough.

 

I have a friend who has automatic delivery of things like toilet paper and tooth brushes and a bunch of stuff.  I am guessing it is cheaper than where we live b/c her husband set it up and he is very careful about such things.

We only use Sam's for things like tires, diapers (when we needed them), toilet paper and paper towels, medicines, and sometimes detergents. I like the liquid detergent, so it never goes hard. :)  

I agree, the food goes stale or bad if we don't freeze it or use it immediately. 

 

We have the membership mainly because of the tires (according to dh). The tires and the free rotations more than make up our membership fee. 

 

A friend of mine gets her toilet paper delivered. It intrigues me. lol Right now, out toilet paper and other items are cheaper than Walmart, but if I can save more, I certainly want to. 

[Southern Ivy]

i dont use amazon prime unless im getting a good deal (as opposed to family members that just use it for everything because they have it).  that being said, DS was begging for the Pixels movie, which was $20+ everywhere  else. i ordered it for 12.99 shipped from AP.  He was also in the market for an RC helicopter and after much research he ordered it from AP for $35 shipped.  nearest price otherwise was around $55.  for house hold stuff its more hit and miss for me because i shop at the Commisarry on base which is the cheapest thing anywhere so i dont get anything paper wise on AP except cases of toilet paper and a case of sevÄ“nth generation dish soap. if youre a careful shopper, you will be able to use it to get good deals on things with the free shipping.  my cranky old father absolutely insists "they get you somewhere.... either coming of going!".  And without ever having used AP before, he insists they raise prices on the products to compensate for free shipping.  well i never find that to be so.  just be a comparison shopper  i even buy clothes on Amazon!  .  oh and my sister, mother andd I went in on the price of the membership so for $33 a year, i am coming out way ahead.   i always  check amazon first,.  i looked into Jet and some of those other sites that are similar and wasnt impressed.  maybe once theyve been around a while and build up more stock.

Ditto. We do a lot of price matching with movies, books, toys, etc. All of dd's gifts, except for 2, came from Amazon. The rest were cheaper at Walmart. 

 

 

[Butter]

I do a lot of stuff on subscribe and save.  5+ items a months means a 15% discount on everything.  Every time I go shopping, I go through the receipt and for things we buy regularly I check and see if Amazon has it available on subscribe and save and if it is cheaper that way.  Costco is actually more expensive than our regular grocery store on everything we buy.  Each month's order varies slightly since we don't need everything every month.  This month we are getting dishwasher tablets, almond flour, three 12-packs of KIND bars, toilet paper, make-up wipes, and elderberry syrup.

[monstermama]

We use Amazon subscribe & save for some items, even though we also have a Costco membership.  You really have to compare prices on what you'd actually buy - when I last looked, some things were better, some things were about equal.  S&S gets you 5% off the items, and if you're ordering 5 or more items per month, it bumps it up to 15%.  I think we have something else with Amazon Mom that gets us 20% off diapers.  We do prefer certain brands, though.  For instance, there's a brand of fire roasted tomatoes I use 2-3 cans a week of, depending on our meal plan.  At the grocery store (not sold at Costco), it sells for $1.29 a can, though I've seen it down to $1 on sale occasionally.  Depending on the S&S discount that month, they're around 89 cents a can, plus I don't have to lug them home from the grocery store :)

 

To us, the benefit to having Prime usually comes around Christmas and birthdays since we're shipping things all over the country.  Between lightning deals and price tracking sites, we're usually able to get the presents on sale for a good price, and shipping's paid for by Prime.  Plus, we don't have to package the stuff and go somewhere to ship it!

 

For me, it comes down to some things being cheaper, some things just being easier to not have to lug home, and some things being more convenient to not have to drive to a store I wouldn't usually go to.

[happi duck]

Is just normal amazon prime different prices? We have ap but I thought it was only free shipping and streaming.

 

Am I missing some bargains?!?

 

;)

[Southern Ivy]

I do a lot of stuff on subscribe and save.  5+ items a months means a 15% discount on everything.  Every time I go shopping, I go through the receipt and for things we buy regularly I check and see if Amazon has it available on subscribe and save and if it is cheaper that way.  Costco is actually more expensive than our regular grocery store on everything we buy.  Each month's order varies slightly since we don't need everything every month.  This month we are getting dishwasher tablets, almond flour, three 12-packs of KIND bars, toilet paper, make-up wipes, and elderberry syrup.

 

 

We use Amazon subscribe & save for some items, even though we also have a Costco membership.  You really have to compare prices on what you'd actually buy - when I last looked, some things were better, some things were about equal.  S&S gets you 5% off the items, and if you're ordering 5 or more items per month, it bumps it up to 15%.  I think we have something else with Amazon Mom that gets us 20% off diapers.  We do prefer certain brands, though.  For instance, there's a brand of fire roasted tomatoes I use 2-3 cans a week of, depending on our meal plan.  At the grocery store (not sold at Costco), it sells for $1.29 a can, though I've seen it down to $1 on sale occasionally.  Depending on the S&S discount that month, they're around 89 cents a can, plus I don't have to lug them home from the grocery store :)

 

To us, the benefit to having Prime usually comes around Christmas and birthdays since we're shipping things all over the country.  Between lightning deals and price tracking sites, we're usually able to get the presents on sale for a good price, and shipping's paid for by Prime.  Plus, we don't have to package the stuff and go somewhere to ship it!

 

For me, it comes down to some things being cheaper, some things just being easier to not have to lug home, and some things being more convenient to not have to drive to a store I wouldn't usually go to.

 

They also have coupons for some items as well, right? 

I think that's what I was seeing when I looked awhile ago - the Subscribe and Save portion. 

I'll have to do a comparison of Sam's Club and SS, then. 

[My4arrows]

We used to have and use prime as well as subscribe and save all the time. A few years ago, Amazon used to have much better prices than other places. Over the past couple of years I've found that their prices aren't better and at times are much more expensive. Also withe the subscribe and save the prices fluctuate so I may have subscribed at a certain price, but it changed by the time I get it each month. I. Found its easier to look occasionally and buy at s good price then and get the free shipping with $35. For the items we buy I can get them less expensive other places online too. I also found when I had prime I spent more money overall because it was easy and "free" shipping.

[SeaConquest]

I haven't heard of Jet.com. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for that tip. 

 

We only use Sam's for things like tires, diapers (when we needed them), toilet paper and paper towels, medicines, and sometimes detergents. I like the liquid detergent, so it never goes hard. :)  

I agree, the food goes stale or bad if we don't freeze it or use it immediately. 

 

We have the membership mainly because of the tires (according to dh). The tires and the free rotations more than make up our membership fee. 

 

A friend of mine gets her toilet paper delivered. It intrigues me. lol Right now, out toilet paper and other items are cheaper than Walmart, but if I can save more, I certainly want to. 

 

Jet came out last summer, and I have been saving a HUGE amount of money with them. Like, seriously, an enormous amount.

 

Here is a writeup about them:

 

http://time.com/money/4068884/jet-com-vs-amazon-price-comparison/

[SeaConquest]

The article I read on Jet.com said there was a membership fee for Jet??

 

 

They were planning to charge one, but they made so much money, they dropped it. I never paid it because they were giving out 6 months or a year for free to get people hooked on their site. It worked for me. I straight up compared Target, Amazon, and Jet, and Jet kicked all their butts. The selection isn't as great as Amazon, and sometimes you have to be pretty specific with Jet's search engine, but the savings have been very large for me. I recently ordered Hanukkah gifts for the kids and Jet beat Amazon by $100 on $400 of merchandise.

[SeaConquest]

Months ago I read this, which indicated it's a $50/year membership but free for some of the early beta users. Did this change?

 

http://www.geekwire.com/2015/sneak-preview-what-its-like-to-shop-on-jet-com-the-e-commerce-startup-thats-gunning-for-amazon/

 

Yes, it changed. What they realized was that people didn't mind saving a little bit less if they didn't have to pay the membership fee. The first month or so that I used Jet, they were basically giving stuff away for free. I mean, for the prices they were charging, they had to be losing money. It was so so cheap. But, then they decided to do away with the membership fee. The prices are still better than Amazon's, but they aren't like they were the first month. 

[Vida Winter]

We use prime for a few items, especially dog food. It is convenient and costs less than Petco. For household items, however, the items (Prime Pantry) were small-sized and not that great. For instance, the toilet paper had the consistency of paper towel. :crying:

[Liz CA]

I used to buy all of that from Amazon, but since Jet.com came out, I am shopping there more often. The prices are much better, and I don't pay taxes or membership fees. Bonus!

 

Thanks for the tip!

 

[redsquirrel]

Is just normal amazon prime different prices? We have ap but I thought it was only free shipping and streaming.

 

Am I missing some bargains?!?

 

;)

 

If you use 'subscribe and save' there is a further discount on your order.  I have quite a few things I get delivered monthly.  Some things come every month (floss) other things come every other month or every three months. You can get right in there and adjust when you want things to come. You can skip a month on some or all items, you can change your delivery date etc.  Every month I get a notice that if I want to change anything in my subscribe and save I have a day to do so or then it will be to late etc.

 

I like it, tbh.

 

[monstermama]

They also have coupons for some items as well, right? 

I think that's what I was seeing when I looked awhile ago - the Subscribe and Save portion. 

I'll have to do a comparison of Sam's Club and SS, then. 

 

They do, but they usually only apply to 1 or possibly 2 shipments.  I'm not good at using grocery store coupons in real life (so much of it is stuff we don't buy, so I've found it's not usually worth my time to sift through ads for what we would get).

 

I have a calendar reminder every month a few days before the S&S shipment is set in stone where I'll review each of the products we're scheduled to get that month and compare prices / inventory.  Sometimes Costco will have a good rebate on something, so I'll stock up there instead and delay delivery for that item on S&S for another month or two.  A few times products have increased in price to where it's no longer worth it - I'll usually delay the shipment for a month or two and then cancel if the price stays high.  

 

But, like I said, we do tend to be brand loyal, and I think that's where a lot of our savings come from.  My DH and DS have sensitive skin, so there's only certain brands of laundry detergent, bath soap, baby wash, etc we buy, and they tend to be the more expensive organic brands.  For instance, the baby wash we use is regularly $13-$14.50 depending on the store, and I can get it via S&S for $10.80.  If we used something that was more common or were able to just buy whatever's on sale when we needed it, I'm not sure S&S would save us money.

[zoobie]

Subscribe and save is cheaper on several things we use. Plus if I go to Target to get laundry detergent, I'm not going to leave with just laundry detergent. Even if it's a little more, it's cheaper overall. And no loading 4 kids in the car, dealing with stupid traffic and people... Definitely worth it during the Christmas season!

[Rachel]

I haven't heard of Jet.com. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for that tip.

 

We only use Sam's for things like tires, diapers (when we needed them), toilet paper and paper towels, medicines, and sometimes detergents. I like the liquid detergent, so it never goes hard. :)

I agree, the food goes stale or bad if we don't freeze it or use it immediately.

 

We have the membership mainly because of the tires (according to dh). The tires and the free rotations more than make up our membership fee.

 

A friend of mine gets her toilet paper delivered. It intrigues me. lol Right now, out toilet paper and other items are cheaper than Walmart, but if I can save more, I certainly want to.

I order my toilet paper from Walmart.com, I'll add in shampoo or something else I need to get to the minimum free shipping. Our closest super center is 25 minutes and the traffic is terrible. Buying online is cheaper than Kmart or Kroger which are my local options.

 

My experience with buying things like diapers and toiletries on Amazon is the prices may start out cheaper, but over time they are increased until they are significantly more. Amazon prices are generally reasonable for one time purchases.

[OH_Homeschooler]

Another Subscribe and Save fan here! I use it for a lot of things like supplements/OTC drugs. I would probably get a lot more but I don't want to pay name brand prices for things, and the selection can be limited. So I still use Target for things like paper towels, etc. and buy the store brand. 

 

I was looking into Prime Pantry the other day because I had a credit to cover the shipping cost for that. I was not impressed with Pantry at all. It seems totally different than Subscribe and Save. Definitely not worth it for me. 

[TammyS]

Yep, this is my experience, too.  It's annoying, because everyone talks about the awesome Prime savings with groceries/toiletries and I'd love to be able to take advantage of it, but it's never any better than what I'm already paying at Wal-Mart.  IDK, maybe I'm not looking at the right things?

 

I think it's probably pretty specific to the kinds of things one uses and which brands.  Someone upthread reference getting her kid's floss for 1/2 what she paid locally, so for her that was a good deal.  Somewhere else the price might be comparable, and that's assuming that you even need it. 

 

It might also be that those who get "good deals" tend to prefer the more expensive brands, where there's more room to discount.  So, if you use Tide, maybe you can find good deals on Amazon.  If you use store brand, Amazon's best deal is probably more expensive than what you get regularly.

[Southern Ivy]

We use prime for a few items, especially dog food. It is convenient and costs less than Petco. For household items, however, the items (Prime Pantry) were small-sized and not that great. For instance, the toilet paper had the consistency of paper towel. :crying:

I was looking at Pantry and it's not available in my little town. :/ 

 

 

I did a cost comparison today and it seems like Sam's Club is beating Amazon hands down by no less than $7!!! - at least on the items I was looking at. That was crazy to me. 

Not all the things I wanted  were on Subscribe and Save, either. So, that was a fail. 

[cintinative]

So I was just looking up birdseed because I did end up finding the specific kind cheaper on Amazon last year-- it is over $60 now but Jet.com was $46 plus a 15% off code for first time order. Thank you to those who mentioned the site!