Category Archives: shopping

Debunking The Amazon Prime Pricing Myth

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Amazon Prime is something we have strongly considered purchasing for quite some time.  We originally got a free one-year subscription by joining the Amazon Mom program, but when that ran out, we reverted back to the Free Super Shipping option.  Giving away the one year for free is a great gimmick, because you really don’t know how much you appreciate it until you don’t have it anymore.

It’ just nice to be able to log in, order something, not really worry about whether your order totals $25, and have the item in two days (of course, you still have to be careful that the items are shipped by Amazon, as many third party resellers are not included in Prime).

As we’ve considered Prime, I’ve done some checking, and there seems to be more than a few people that believe that Amazon Prime membership is a joke, and that they simply charge Prime members a higher price by directing them to a higher cost version of their product.

I don’t have any specific examples to cite (simply because I don’t have the benefit of a Prime membership to search with), but I’ve seen similar numbers used as an example:

Person A without Prime searches on an item and the main result comes back at $19.99 from a third party seller.

Person B with Prime searches on an item and the main result comes back at $21.99, sold directly by Amazon.

At first glance, this appears that Amazon is charging Prime members more.

Oh, the outrage, right?

Wrong.

See, Amazon returns the results based on the lowest total cost to you.  And, what’s the difference between your two customers?

Shipping costs.

Amazon assumes that Person A, who doesn’t have Prime, will buy the item alone.  Since they don’t have Prime and wouldn’t qualify for any shipping cost exclusions, Amazon assumes that they will pay shipping regardless.  Assume, for the sake of argument, that the shipping cost by both Amazon direct and the third-party seller is $4.99.  The $21.99 version is sold by Amazon, but since Amazon believes that this customer will buy the item alone, they factor in the expected shipping cost.  Thus, the lowest cost item to the customer is the $19.99 third-party version, which added with the $4.99 shipping cost, totals $24.98, lower than the Amazon directly sold version, which would total $26.98.

But, why does the Prime member get the $21.99 version?  Simple.  Because for them, the version sold directly by Amazon will include free shipping, whereas the third party version for $19.99 would include shipping charges anyway.  Thus their ‘total cost’ on the Amazon directly sold version is $21.99, whereas it’s still going to be $24.98 for the third party sold version.

In other words: Amazon has provided both customers with the version that is cheapest to them based on the item pricing, expected shipping costs, and their membership status.

I know these examples don’t include ‘real’ numbers, but I’m 99% certain that this is the model that Amazon follows.  And, if so, there is no reason to think that Amazon is trying to charge a higher price for a Prime vs. non-Prime customer (or vice versa).  On the contrary, it seems that they’re doing their best to ensure that you get the lowest price possible given the circumstance.

Do you use Amazon Prime?  If so, do you think it saves you money in the long run?  Have you ever run into the different pricing structure as noted above?

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or check out my Facebook page. This original Money Beagle post Copyright 2012 Money Beagle is authorized to appear only on www.moneybeagle.com. Thank you for reading and remember: It’s a great day to be alive!

Great Deals Make Me Want To Buy Less

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If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you know that I love a great deal.  I mean, there’s something about saving money that just makes me feel…great!

So, great deals are always great, right?

Well, as it turns out, not always.

See, I’m obsessed with getting great deals, but not obsessed enough to always find them. At least, not on time.

Information is too readily available these days.  One of the pieces of information that I have been finding too often is that about deals that have already expired.

It used to be that deals were for a certain amount of time.  A week was pretty standard.

Now, deals are one-day or even one-hour.

Awesome…if you get them.

Annoying…if you find out about them later.

If I find an item that I want to get for my wife for Christmas, but find that it was $10 cheaper yesterday or even an hour ago, I get seriously annoyed.  I know it’s irrational but I get annoyed at the store for not selling it to me for that cheaper price.  I get annoyed at the other shoppers for jumping on the deal and making it unavailable for me.

Hey, I did say I know it’s irrational, didn’t I?

I simply hate spending more than I have to, and that includes paying more than it was just available for.

These “limited time offers” and “one day sales” and “lightning deals” are awesome but at the same time they’re annoying.

Hmm, things that are annoyingly awesome.  Sounds like that could be a now-and-then feature, what do you think?

Tell me some things that you know are ‘annoyingly awesome’?  Have you missed out on any deals that were just out of reach?  What did you do, did you just shrug and pay more or did you move on from the deal altogether?

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or check out my Facebook page. This original Money Beagle post Copyright 2011 Money Beagle is authorized to appear only on www.moneybeagle.com. Thank you for reading and remember: It’s a great day to be alive!

Don’t Forget To Check For Promo Codes!

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We were recently ordering some stuff from Pottery Barn Kids for our daughter for Christmas.  They had some promotions that were built into the item pricing of the things we wanted to purchase (one item had free shipping, another had free personalization).

My wife showed me the items she wanted to order to make sure I approved of the details, and had already entered in her payment information.  I said that the stuff looked good, but then yelled “WAIT!” and dived across the living room couch, as she went to hit ‘Submit’ for the payment.

After picking myself off the floor and taking in the ‘are you nuts’ look that I was getting, I said:

“We have to check if there’s any promo codes!”

I checked some of my favorite sites (Retail Me Not is my go-to site) and as it turns out, there weren’t any additional coupons off.  But, I still check every single time.

You never know what promotion someone else has discovered that might save you a few bucks.  Even if you find a coupon only one out of every ten times, that still means you’re saving money just by a few clicks.  Now that it’s the holiday season, you want to make sure that you’re checking as I’m sure there are more orders, more competition, and more codes available!

Regardless if it’s Amazon (who almost never has any coupon codes), Pottery Barn, or any other site, I always make sure to look if there’s any coupon/promotional codes available.

Do you? 

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or check out my Facebook page. This original Money Beagle post Copyright 2011 Money Beagle is authorized to appear only on www.moneybeagle.com. Thank you for reading and remember: It’s a great day to be alive! -

Always Track Your Holiday Spending

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One sure way to blow your holiday budget is to avoid tracking what you spend.

This may sound like common sense, but really, it’s not.

Many people do shopping for multiple people at once, often having a list of multiple things for those people.  Unless you are uber-prepared and know exactly what every item is going to cost before you buy it, then you will probably be doing shopping in the following fashion:

  1. Gift 1 for Person A
  2. Gift 1 for Person B
  3. Gift 2 for Person B
  4. Gift 1 for Person C
  5. Gift 2 for Person A

And it goes on and on….

Even if you walk into the mall with a person-by-person budget, unless you track your spending immediately after making a purchase, you will go over.

I guarantee this.

I often go on a power-shopping spree for my wife, trying to get all of my buying done at once.  Since I usually get a few different things, I’ve burned myself more than once by underestimating what I spent.

I’ll set off with a budget of, say, $200, go in and spend $60 at the first store, then $40 at the second.  After spending $30 at the third, if I haven’t written down exactly what I’ve spent, I’ll start forgetting about sales tax and oh crap, it completely slipped my mind that I got a stocking stuffer at the second store that really made it $47.  By the time I get to the fifth store, I’ll have a general idea of what I spent, but once I get home, the total amount is a surprise, and not one that keeps me within budget.

My advice is to take a small notepad, or use your smartphone, and take a running total of what you’re spending on each person.  With time in short supply, it may seem like you can’t afford the time to stop after each store, but I can assure you, that from a budget standpoint, you can’t afford not to.

What tips do you have to stick to your holiday budget?

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or check out my Facebook page. This original Money Beagle post Copyright 2011 Money Beagle is authorized to appear only on www.moneybeagle.com. Thank you for reading and remember: It’s a great day to be alive! -

Restaurant.Com (Or Participating Resturants) Reduces Portion Sizes On Some Deals

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One of the worst kept secrets in the ‘get a great deal’ on dining out has been Restaurant.com.  This site has been one of my favorites for years.

With the site, you can buy a coupon that gives you a dollar amount off participating restaurants.  Typically, you can get a $10 coupon for $3 or a $25 for $10, with each restaurant choosing the terms by which you can use the coupons (some won’t allow you to use them on weekend nights or on holidays or unless your party consists of a certain number of people).  The great part about it is that you can typically find a coupon code for 80%, and sometimes even 90%, off the regular price of a certificate.

Pot roast corn fed chicken with wild sorrel risotto, summer truffles and calvados espuma at The Forth Floor Restaurant, Harvey Nichols, Edinburgh

This means that you could get a $10 coupon for $0.60 or a $25 coupon for $2 with the most commonly found 80% off coupon.

It’s practically a steal!

I’ve noticed, though, that over the past few months, a few restaurants have the stipulation “Promo Codes Do Not Apply.”

Sure enough, if you add that coupon to your shopping cart and enter a promo code, you don’t get anything off.

I wasn’t able to find much information about why some restaurants are excluded.  I’m not sure if the restaurants get a better rate for not participating or how the participation structure breaks down.

At first glance, it’s easy to say “Well, I’m not paying five times more for a certificate” and move on.  And, that’s certainly a valid option.  If you’re browsing Restaurant.com and you’re wavering between two restaurants, one that you can use a promo code and one that you can’t, my guess is the one that allows you to use to code will win 99% of the time.

So, why would you buy a coupon at a restaurant that doesn’t allow you to use codes.  Here’s a few reasons I can think of.

  1. You didn’t even know about the 80% off regular codes
  2. It’s your favorite restaurant
  3. It’s still a better percentage off (60 or 70%) than most Groupon or Living Social deals, which from what I’ve been able to see, give you 50-55% off in most cases.

Would the cutbacks on promo code availability cause you to stop using Restaurant.com or would you narrow down your list of potential restaurants to those which are not on the ‘restricted’ list?  

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or check out my Facebook page. This original Money Beagle post Copyright 2011 Money Beagle is authorized to appear only on www.moneybeagle.com. Thank you for reading and remember: It’s a great day to be alive! -

The Replacement TV Vow

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Here’s a somewhat relevant post to Black Friday that has nothing to do with getting the best deals.  I’m sure there’s a million posts that you can read today about this topic, so I thought I’d post about one bit of shopping I won’t be doing.  Unless our TV breaks :)
——–
In 1997, I was a year out of college.  A buddy and I moved in together to a cheap apartment as we were both on entry level jobs that also had entry level salaries.

One of the luxuries I allowed myself was a new TV.  For the times, it was a pretty awesome TV.

It was a 32″ Toshiba, that’s about all I know now, though at the time I probably could have told you more specifics.

Old tellies

Compared to what’s out now, it’s pretty basic.  It only has one set of inputs for an auxiliary connection, so we have to unplug and re-plug in stuff anytime we want to switch between the DVD player and the Wii.  But, that was probably pretty common then?

I remember being really proud of that purchase back then. It was sort of a status symbol thing.  A lot of my friends had moved out on their own and no one had a TV over 30″ at the time.  And at $800 or so, that was huge money for a guy not making too much money.

Nowadays, of course, that TV is pretty antiquated.  32″ is nothing.  I don’t think they even sell tube TVs that small anymore.  And even the most basic TV has a whole row of inputs.

Still, I’d always said that I planned on keeping that TV for as long as it works.  So far, that’s held true.

It’s been tempting to replace it with a flat screen.  Especially when I watch some of the NFL football games on our flat screen (also a 32″) in our bedroom with HD.  Sports, as it turns out, were meant to be watched in HD!

But, as soon as I go back down to the old TV, I’m fine with what I see.

And so far, the TV is holding out strong.  There was a false alarm a few months ago when the bottom of the screen had some strange colors, but a quick Google search told me that something magnetized had probably been placed near it, and it just needed to be power cycled to degauss it.  Worked.

I still plan on keeping with my promise.  The only way I might break it is if the Lions somehow made it to the Super Bowl in which case it’d be a crime not to watch that in HD, right?  :)

Do you have any stuff that you put a keep-it-til-it-dies policy on? 

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or check out my Facebook page. This original Money Beagle post Copyright 2011 Money Beagle is authorized to appear only on www.moneybeagle.com. Thank you for reading and remember: It’s a great day to be alive! -