Amazon Prime Memberships, the new normal - Part 2
The day before and 10 days following the posting of part one of “Amazon Prime Memberships - the new normal” claiming that households having a Prime membership will become (or arguably has already become) the normal, Amazon made two announcements which will further make Prime Memberships a staple in households across the country and potentially the world.
Announcement #1: Prime for lower income
On June 6th, Amazon announced that they would be offering a discounted Prime Membership for lower income individuals/family with an Electronic Benefit Card.
With a 45% discount on the $10.99 standard Prime membership, Amazon is coming after one of Wal-Mart’s target markets.
Announcement #2: Amazon purchases Whole Foods
With its purchase of Whole Foods, on June 16, the possibilities are endless of how Amazon will use these brick and mortar locations to shape their immediate and long term Prime offering.
Personally, having recently left Chicago, a market in which Amazon Prime Now and Instacart make the delivery of ANYTHING in two hours seem like a reasonable expectation, I am excited for the impact of this acquisition on the markets with a Whole Foods physical location.
For the foreseeable future, I sadly feel logistics, population density, and profit potential still stand in the way of improving the delivery options in my new home town but at the very least, I am excited for:
- in store pickup of my Amazon purchases
- online ordering of groceries
- ability to order repeat grocery orders via Alexa
Further, the impact this will have on regional grocery stores to "up their game" in the digital and delivery space will be monumental. The local store will now have to start to compete with Amazon on price and services. Potentially bad for "buy local" initiatives, but great for customers.
Differentiation, relationship, and personal experiences will have to become the bread and butter (pun intended) of the mom and pop local stores. Location convenient to ones home may no longer equal success if I can have my staples show up when needed.
In the days following the Whole Foods announcement, I saw a good joke about our future lives after some of the items listed above come to fruition.
Or this joke about about Jeff Bezos accidentally purchased Whole Foods through an Alexa mishap.
