Has anyone seen this offer at [url]www.amazon.com?[/url]

It just seems like Amazon could be taking a huge cost expense from this, and I just don't see how it's going to be economically beneficial.

In short:

You pay $79 for an annual membership.

This entitles you to:

Free Two-Day Shipping
Upgrades to One-Day (Overnight) Shipping for just $3.99 per item

Plus you can share with up to four family members.

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If you don't get what this means, it means you get unlimited use of free two-day shipping. Normally this is ~$10 per shipment regularly, now its free.

Plus you can get 1 day delivery for $4 per item, when it normally costs ~$15 per shipment.

If you buy stuff from amazon.com, this can be a huge policy! You'll save tons of money on free shipping, and get items faster too. Plus, its unlimited.

I just see amazon taking a big loss here. I mean hell, now if 2 day shipping is free, I could just order one item at a time when I want. This saves ordering some items together in order to save on shipping... Then I could just pay the normal shipping rate it usually costs and have it the next day if I order before 6:30 PM.

What's everyone's thoughts on this?

Plus or Negative? They say they realize it'll be a cost, but they hope in the long term it increases business...

Once someone buys a membership, Amazon has their money for sure, and people are more likely to buy more from the site to either A) make their membership worth while or B) Take advantage of the sweet deal, thus earning Amazon a great deal more revenue.

Not to mention many people won't take full advantage.

First I thought that said $79 per MONTH and was thinking it was a horrible deal, but considering it really is per YEAR, that is pretty good. If NewEgg did something like that, I'd probably get it from them at least.

sounds like a somewhat good deal

Mikus and Emon pretty much nailed it.. Amazon is willing to "lose" a few bucks on shipping if it means more things are purchased. They are hoping the added income of buying more items will be greater than the hit for the 2 day shipping.

Amazon has always been willing to lose money. In fact, the website hasnt been a profitable enterprise until recently. They lost money every year until a couple of years ago.

I hardly ever buy things off websites, it'd cost me more to get that deal

It sounded like a good deal until I read the fine print. It says that you can only use it to ship stuff to your own address, so it's worthless for gifts.