NY Times: "As Competition Wanes, Amazon Cuts Back Discounts" http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/05/business/as-competition-wa...

Yes, I bought a new desktop computer recently. I was surprised to find that the price parity with Newegg and others I've become used to (so much so that I'd stopped comparison shopping until I was looking at a $1700 purchase) was no longer in effect. Newegg saved me more than $200. Mostly due to buying multiple high end video cards which were much more expensive at Amazon.

Though it took almost two weeks to receive my order, despite having ShopRunner (which theoretically competes with Amazon Prime, which I also have) and the few things I did order from Amazon arrived in two days, as expected. Given that, I may not order from Newegg again...certainly not for anything I need quickly. Though, I suspect this was a one time phenomenon based on high demand (I ordered sometime around Black Friday, though it wasn't on Black Friday or Cyber Monday).

My love of Amazon runs pretty deep, but it's starting to fade. I'm also pretty unhappy with AWS lately. The sluggishness of EC2 vs other virtual systems in similar price range is pretty severe, so even if the infrastructure and capabilities are much greater at Amazon, the ability to fire up a server and blast off with lots of users cheaply is not always as good as the competition.

Yep. Free shipping is not free shipping when you move the cost to the items. 2 day shipping is convenient, but not as convenient as driving 10 minutes down the road. For me, even 2 day shipping is an inconvenience. If i'm not saving a good deal of money, I'm not going to use it. Compound that with the fact that they now charge sales tax in my state, and I can honestly say I don't order too much from them anymore.

The worst is the UPS to USPS handoff where the USPS driver just leaves a note in your mailbox saying that your package will be at the Post Office waiting for you. Why did I wait 3 days to go pick up a package from a place with a horribly long line? I can't imagine what the line is going to be like on the day after Christmas, damnit Amazon.

I noticed that too for some things (especially things I picked up at Home Depot). However, with Prime, I am still often inclined to buy things if the premium is only 5-10% vs big box because I'm not paying tax and/or I don't need it now. Though that being said, I have recently found myself ordering stuff to target and picking it up in store (during holidays to avoid the cashiers).

Can't say I did. Granted, those are the types of items I would never buy at Amazon if they were cheaper. But all the stuff I recently purchased was a good $10-15 dollars less than going to the store.

Amazon has a price tracker over time... look at it for those items..

Here's a good price tracker: http://camelcamelcamel.com/

I've definitely noticed Amazon prices going up. I purchased another chef's knife and it was $10 more expensive than when I first purchased it.