A while back I wrote about the impending devaluation of Amazon Mom. On November 11, the discount on baby wipes was reduced to 5%, and the cumulative discount when you have 5 or more Subscribe and Save items in a shipment dropped from 20% to 15%. Some Amazon Mom members were notified that they would be receiving a credit in some amount as a one time consolation prize (my words, not Amazon’s). Today, I received my code for a $30 credit. Check your inbox if you haven’t already.
Overall, the devaluation is disappointing. I particularly enjoyed the 20% discount on 5 S&S items, as it was easy, convenient, and very price-competitive to keep the home stocked with paper towels, toilet paper, laundry detergent, dish detergent, diapers, wipes, you name it. Coupled with the new Amazon Pantry program, where heavier household items like cases of paper towels and detergent now ship at a flat rate, rather than free with Prime, we’ve taken a bit of a hit in terms of overall Prime benefits. I’m not sure where things will fall, but I’ll be lo0king at the Walmart and Target ads now and not just letting those Subscribe and Save orders ride.
What do you think – is Walmart in your future?
Target is in my present; I do about 75% of my grocery shopping there, with a local coop and Costco making up the rest. But Walmart is the embodiment of all that is rapacious and evil in commerce to me, and I will be content never to set foot in Wally World again.
BTW: a study was done locally, with WM, TG and the biggest local chain, called Cub Foods. They added the regular prices of a year’s worth of groceries at the three. WM won–by about $20, for an entire year’s worth of groceries. It’s not worth it to me to support the Walton family for less than $2/month.
My groceries mostly come from Whole Foods, plus Hannaford. It’s worth another post on its own, but we’ve made up the price difference between WF and the regular grocery store – if you shop the perimeter, the only thing that’s vastly different in price is meat. Everything else is close or a bit more at WF. We’ve made up the remainder by just wasting less. It’s incredible how much of the weekly grocery run used to just go out in the trash. I won’t pretend it’s cheaper, but it’s close enough, and one thing I won’t cut corners on (if I can help it) is what we eat. Not just for health reasons – I assure you I’m no model of proper nutrition – it’s just in my DNA. I’m the first American in a family of Italians 🙂
I don’t really get into the social issues surrounding Walmart, it’s enough for me to just not like pallets of junk in every aisle. That said, I still buy my motor oil there. SuperTech synthetic. Heh.
The thing that Amazon is probably arriving at is that they don’t need to be the cheapest. They need to be in the ballpark, which they are. On a lot of things, WM might be cheaper, but when I factor in time and gas (the underwear factor), it probably comes out the same. Now throw in the fact that I will spend money to buy back leisure time and Amazon is still a winner for me. I’m sure that my consumer behavior isn’t unique, either. I’m not sure where my actual line is, but if I’m spending an extra $20 a month with Amazon to save me 2-3 hours round trip of Walmart or Target (figure 90 mins every other week), I’m fine with that. I already spend too much time at the office, so that’s 2-3 hours I can hang out with my family. I just made up the $20 figure, but I bet I’d make the same deal for $40.
I’ll still keep an eye on the WM/Target ads, though. If Amazon is going to shed benefits and Target runs a solid loss leader on paper products or something, I might go stock up – especially since Staples is across the street and I can do some MS there 😀 Maybe pick up my WF gift cards while I’m at it.