Saudi Arabia Crude Oil Imports -- US -- Monthly Update -- January 30, 2015

See also today's update from Reuters. 

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Amazon Killing It With Prime

The other day a reader was happy with his investment with Amazon but concerned about the cost of Amazon Prime.

My reply from yesterday:

I order a lot of stuff from Amazon but have never paid for Prime shipping --I'm too cheap. But I have to admit, the more I use Amazon, the more I wonder about signing up for Prime Shipping -- my wife suggests that I do -- or wonders if I already have it....I think [Prime is] something that will continue to grow...people just get addicted to ordering from Amazon, and then at some point they start thinking shipping...

... and now today, from Yahoo!Finance:

Don't act so surprised:  Amazon is killing it with Prime.

Growth in Amazon Prime memberships propelled the etail giant to a profitable fourth quarter. That was after two consecutive quarters of steep losses. Last year, the company raised the Prime subscription fee to $99 from $79, but the number of subscribers grew anyway. Big time. An estimated 10 million new customers signed up over the holiday season alone.

“I don’t know why anyone would be surprised that Prime customers actually not only did not flee the service when Amazon raised prices,” says Yahoo Finance’s Jeff Macke, “but they added 53% more Prime subscribers” in 2014.  The service provides free two-day shipping and video streaming.

Those subscribers are doing some serious shopping. After paying the annual fee for the Prime service, Prime members are in turn spending a lot more on products on the site. There are about 40 million Amazon Prime members in the United States right now, and they spend about $1,500 a year. That’s according to new research out this week from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. Non-Prime members spend about $625 over the course of the year.

Earlier today I was checking my Amazon account (for a number of reasons). I noted that a package was delivered to my address two days ago. I had not seen it. Today, I went down to the apartment complex manager's office (again) and re-checked. And there it was; I had missed it when looking for it yesterday. A wonderful pleasant surprise. I have never had a bad experience Amazon. I was fully reimbursed for one product some time ago even though it was my error and I specifically told Amazon (and the third party seller not to reimburse me because it was my error, not theirs) but they reimbursed me 100%.

I don't have Prime shipping. But it's getting harder and harder to resist.