The Amazon Page -- September 17, 2022

A reader responded to one of my many posts on Amazon by suggesting he/she may invest in AMZN.

I struggle with that "decision" every week if not almost every day. 

As fascinated as I am with Amazon, I just cannot bring myself to initiating a position in AMZN.

AMZN pays no dividend. That's not a deal-breaker by any means but it weighs heavily in the decision-making process. It should be noted that AAPL doesn't pay much of a dividend either, and I am invested in AAPL.

Jeff Bezos philosophy with Amazon seems to be to do whatever it takes to please the Amazon shopper and not worry about a profit. I get the feeling that Jeff Bezos doesn't really care if investors do well with AMZN; he's focused on the retail customer. I assume he does the same with services, such as AWS.

Amazon does a lot more "stuff" than just sell books.

Amazon has incredible pricing power. I'm thinking about its annual Prime membership.

Okay, that was the preamble. Now the fun stuff.

1. The one thing I don't need is any more Lego. But I made a mistake of visiting the Lego website tonight just to see what was new, and ended up getting one of those expensive sets. But instead of ordering from Lego, which I normally do, I ordered through Amazon. Same price but with incredible finance terms (though I did not explore Lego to see if they had similar deal).

2. Amazon's finance terms: perhaps Amazon has had this option "for years" but, if so, I never noticed it until tonight. Apparently on all (?) purchases greater than $50, Amazon allows one to pay for the item over six to eighteen months interest-free using the Amazon Chase Visa card. The only downside: using that option does not offer Amazon's standard 5% cashback. So, in effect one pays 5% extra for an interest-fee purchase. 

3. For the brand-new Apple M2 MacBook Air, Amazon is now discounting it by $100 -- best discount on this Apple laptop -- even $50 better than Costco -- and instead of paying $1,098 up-front for the computer, one pays $61/month, interest free for eighteen months. I find that incredible. Isn't the usual APR for credit cards running about 24%?

4. Subscriptions: more and more I'm setting up subscriptions for items I buy on a regular basis, such as K-cups (coffee, Keurig). Always a discount for subscriptions and Amazon will adjust the price downward if the "regular" price goes down. Amazon always sends an alert about ten days out regarding a subscription delivery, allowing one to modify the delivery date, even canceling the subscription.

5. NFL TNF: as predicted, Amazon is improving the TNF experience. First, they brought in two of the best announcers. Second, working with NFL, it appears TNF will feature top contests. TNF might now compete with MNF and SNF. I look for more improvements for TNF; already there are others including multiple streams like the PGA does. TNF is only available on Amazon, except for viewers who live where the teams are based. So, this past Thursday, viewers in Kansas City and Los Angeles could watch the game on their local network if they had an antenna; the rest of the nation could only see if they subscribed to Prime Video, which is bundled with Amazon Prime.

6. The reader mentioned The Power of the Rings. I had the same thought: so far, the story line is "so-so," but I find myself going back and watching it over and over. It's an incredibly complicated story and the streaming concept works incredibly well for such complicated fare.

7. More and more, I give Target (a two-minute bike ride from my apartment) one chance. If I go to Target to pick up a specific item and they don't have it, I check to see if Amazon has it. If Amazon has it, I buy it from Amazon, and if it's going to be a regularly-bought item, I set up a subscription for that item with Amazon. Little-by-little, more of my weekly non-perishable grocery shopping is going to subscription and going to Amazon.

8. My credit card cash back is about double the annual Amazon Prime subscription. I still haven't "paid for" a new book from Amazon in a long time. 

9. Amazon's return policy is as good as it gets. Amazon's delivery times are simply incredible if one lives near a fulfillment center. Amazon is a master champion at combining orders even if items are bought separately hours apart (or, sometimes, months apart, as they are with subscriptions). Two days ago I ordered a book; it arrived the next day in the same box as the K-cup subscription, an order that comes every three months.

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All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them.