[B. Justin Shier]

I was trying to buy a Prime-eligible low-cost add-on to a previously purchased product, and saw this interesting note in regards to the shipping terms:

"This item is available because of the new Add-on program.

The Add-on program allows Amazon to offer thousands of low-priced items that would be cost-prohibitive to ship on their own. These items ship with qualifying orders over $25 and are eligible for free shipping. Details."

They provide more detail here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200876660&pop-up=1

Check out what it says about Prime:

"Add-on Items and Amazon Prime

When you add an Add-on Item to an Amazon Prime order of more than $25, your Add-on Item will also receive Prime shipping benefits, including FREE Two-Day Shipping. For example, if you ordered five $5 pacifiers, each of which was an Add-on Item, your order would receive Prime shipping benefits.

As a Prime member you can continue to choose from the over 15 million (and growing) Prime-eligible items sold on Amazon.com, plus access Prime Instant Videos and the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. Not yet a member of Amazon Prime? Learn more about the benefits of Prime membership."

Maybe this limitation on Prime shipping has been present for a while now, but this was the first I'd seen of it.

B.

 

[H.M. Ward]

I saw that in early Dec. It appeared to be on grocery items, mostly. I ordered a bottle of caramel syrup for $9 and it was an add on. They spun it pretty good and made it sound like they got us stuff at rockbottom prices and we should be doing the happy dance. Marketing like that always impresses me.

 

[41413]

They've been doing this for at least a couple of months. When I bought supplies for my son's ill-fated and short-lived time at a bilingual preschool that resulted in my entire household projectile vomiting for a month, the glue sticks and safety scissors were add-on items to the bigger things, such as the adorable bumblebee backpack that he refused to wear without flopping to the ground screaming for fifteen minutes first.

Considering how much I've forced Amazon to eat on shipping costs (I got free shipping on a 125lb desk through Prime, for crying out loud), I'm okay with this. I wouldn't ship safety scissors on their own for free, either.

 

[B. Justin Shier]

Gotcha. I'm going to use this as inspiration to wean myself off Prime. I can only watch Downton Abbey so many times. [Dowager Countess FTW!]

B.

 

[Amanda Brice]

Anytime you get to show a clip of the Dowager Countes, it's a win.