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Comment by m0nty | Hacker News Reader

I might have kept my subscription if "next day delivery" wasn't all-too-often "day after next day and maybe even the day after that, depends if it's a weekday or not." I don't miss it.

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Similarly I'll get something I order in a day or two even when it is the 5-7 business day option - it's in their interest to make everything as efficient as possible and not be holding onto inventory.

I think the main benefit is your orders get higher priority during holiday season when it's busy and regular orders may take a long time to fulfill.

You're likely right it does put you in a higher tier of priority, however how that plays out practically be a relatively slim advantage or speed increase - as is my and OP's comments allude to. Comes back to the rule of efficiency and lower cost with adequate planning, planning ahead of time, detriment of impulse or last minute buying, and stability of supply-demand systems.

Living near a warehouse or on a major shipping artery means things show up very quickly basically no matter what. The post office / shipping companies don't stall orders just for the heck of it. If it takes two days to go from here to there, even though you paid for slow shipping, you'll get it in two days.

Sometimes I wonder. I've definitely noticed packages sitting in the local post office for a day or two to simply get past that 2 day limit. There's even been times where I was able to call the post office and go pick it up, because they didn't send it out for delivery despite arriving the day before. Could be innocent, but it always struck me as suspicious.

This was the original reason I started Prime — guaranteed two day shipping. Now both the offering and price has been bloated to the point it has little value to me anymore, especially because the delivery windows are all over the place and the Amazon delivery courier is a sub-par experience compared to UPS/Fedex.

It’s no longer an easy shopping experience, you have to scrutinize the entire process.

I always go for their 2 day delivery because choosing same day or 1 day delivery would frequently end up in an email saying that the package is running late, and it should arrive some time in the next 10 business days. Not sure what caused 2 day delivery to be fine, but 1 day delivery to turn into 2 week delivery so often.

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