I would like to say the same, because it sure sounds "convenient," but I have noticed that in most cases price comparisons work out in favor of physical stores. I know that a return trip to the shopping area of my town costs less than $3, and this is usually an activity that my family does together.

We plan ahead to minimize time and effort spent shopping. I think Amazon is benefiting from the fact that most consumers are not conditioned to do this. Last year we bought a lot online from Amazon because they offered favorable pricing and transportation costs, but this year their share of our online purchases has been zero. We are not a big consumer of media and in fact many of the items I buy online now are not available from Amazon!

For me, subscribing to Prime meant that I would feel obligated to buy more from Amazon, which does not make sense because of their pricing shenanigans. I never choose express transportation when shopping online anyway. I also don't see the point when a 10 minute trip to Dollar General will get me a household item for $2.50 that Amazon sold for almost $9 when I checked.