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Comment by __david__ | Hacker News Reader

This is a weird move. I think if I didn't already have prime, I'd just go somewhere else rather than be motivated to subscribe. Hopefully this is just an experiment—I suspect this is ultimately going to be self defeating.

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It is majorly self defeating. A transaction on Amazon has very little friction, because they already have your payment details, you have a history and you know the quirks of the site.

By forcing people to consider alternatives, it is making people experience that initial friction elsewhere, but once they are setup there the friction is less. It won't take very long to discover other retailers have better prices, better shipping and less quirky sites.

Essentially this is nice gift to Amazon's competitors. Amazon will find out just how "sticky" those competitors are, but this stills seems silly.

Also, Amazon should want to know everything I buy to better offer me value that allows them to get more sales from me.

They've been doing it for over a year, so it's very unlikely it's only an experiment. The Amazon forums thread complaining about it has 267 participants, and was started in December of 2014.

https://www.amazon.com/forum/amazon/ref=cm_cd_notf_thread?_e...

One explanation: * People who buy video games on amazon and don't have prime aren't likely to get prime. * They're losing money on the free shipping offer (given video games tend to be >$35, may have thinner margins than other products).

I'm not saying this is their reasoning, I'm just saying it could make sense.

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