Amazon Is Offering a Discount on Prime For People On Government Assistance (theverge.com) 91
Amazon announced on Tuesday that it is offering a discount on Prime membership for US customers participating in a number of government assistance programs. From a report: Anyone with a valid Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, which disburses funds for programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps), is eligible for Prime's discounted monthly price of $5.99. Prime's normal price is a $99 a year, or a monthly fee of $10.99. From a report:
Re: Obama Phone (Score:2)
That seems unlikely to be honest. I'm not sure why you'd lie about that.
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It's not verbatim, but indeed it happened:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
This was just one element of the Obama euphoria that people experienced. Another (quite nauseating I might add) example is this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Great... (Score:5, Funny)
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So... you're new around here, aren't you?
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Not it's not. It's feeling better. It's going for a walk. It feels happy, HAPPY!
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Might actually be a bit quieter than usual, most of the trolls and asshats will be off enjoying their new discount.
Damn these mod points (Score:2)
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Umm... this is slashdot, right? ;)
Well, no TRUE Slashdotter.... (Score:1)
...would act like that here.
Half the summary is missing... (Score:5, Informative)
The linked article doesn't mention that Amazon is going after EBT dollars that typically gets spent at Walmart.
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-lowers-prime-cost-for-shoppers-on-food-stamps-2017-6 [businessinsider.com]
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third paragraph of tfa...
This announcement is the latest in several recent moves Amazon has made to appeal to lower-income households and become a direct competitor to Walmart. Last year, it introduced the $10.99 monthly payment option, and earlier this year it announced the decision to start accepting food stamps for online grocery orders beginning this summer.
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third paragraph of tfa...
Buried that deep no wonder I didn't see it. ;)
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I've read a lot of your posts in the last week, and I think there's some attention-span issues there.
My posts or the posts written by the defunct trio of criemer, cremier and creinner?
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I can tell cdreimer from creimer...
Lucky you. Most ACs can't tell the difference and blame me anyway.
So, ever been tested for ADHD?
Not to my knowledge. If I was diagnosed as ADHD when attending grade school in the early 1980's, I would have been medicated to the gills. Turning children into habitual drug users like their parents was a thing back then.
Re: Half the summary is missing... (Score:3)
EBT cards are a special type of debit card that requires a different system than normal credit cards due to the fact that they are used for both SNAP (food stamps) as well as Cash Aid distribution of funds.
As far as I am aware, you cannot use them online anywhere, only at physical locations where the retailer has tied into the EBT system.
p.s. "Food stamps" for an individual in California are currently around $186 a month, so when people talk about
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As far as I am aware, you cannot use them online anywhere, only at physical locations where the retailer has tied into the EBT system.
Looks like Amazon joined the EBT program as an approved vendor.
Could you survive on $400 per month and be happy?
I shared a five-bedroom Victorian with 12 other guys for $200 per month while in college. Lived on $200 for the rest of the month. I worked full time in the summer to pay for classes and books. This was the early 1990's.
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Cool story, but you forgot to adjust for inflation.
Could you have lived on $250/month? Because that's the equivalent in 1995 dollars. (Per AIER's calculator [aier.org]... nit-pick with them if you object to the numbers)
With $200 of that going to rent, you would have been left with ~$12 per week. Not a particularly glamorous lifestyle.
The social safety net in this country is laughable.
Re: Half the summary is missing... (Score:2)
If only there was a thread you could read, or an article. Hell, that thread might even quote the article. It might even talk about how they are now accepting EBT... Ah well.
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It's also good business from Econ 101 [iastate.edu], where you adjust your price based on the ability to pay. Do a find on "price discrimination".
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To be successful, the classic requirements are:
I think it's safe to say that if they dropped the price of Prime, more people would join - so they meet the first criteria. They definitely have the means to identify consumers willing to pay more. And prime would be hard for low-price customers to resell.
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Limited applicability, but valid in some cases. Some.
This is part of the reason luxury items which actually cost more to make than most people can afford have higher profit margins (the businesses have higher net profits) than consumer goods. The other part is that high costs and small markets means lots of risk, meaning high probability of failure, and high barrier-to-entry: another player can't just stand up shop next to you and sell at a 10% margin versus your 20% if there are all of 1 million cust
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I suspect that won't stop the usual suspects going off on a rant about how the undeserving are getting something for nothing.
Re:"good business" but still slimy (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, this is just a corollary of Amazon's all-things-to-all-people strategy. If anybody buys anything, Amazon wants it to be through them.
Even people on welfare have to buy stuff. And most people who are on welfare are off welfare in under three years and back in the workforce. So in a sense this is like the prime membership they gave my college student daughter, who is poor as a church mouse and has to live like a monk. But when she graduates she'll have a lot more money to spend, and she'll have been trained to find Amazon the most convenient way to buy things.
Even I find myself buying things through Amazon for convenience. I should buy electronics shit through Digikey but sometimes if I'm ordering something else on prime I'll throw in something I need for my current project.
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Food stamps are pretty much a thing of the past. They give you an EBT card, which works like a debit card. They load it up with funds periodically. 'Loose' it and they invalidate the card. Loose it more than a few times and questions will be asked.
Pressing problem? (Score:2)
I would have thought that people using EBT cards have more pressing problems than dealing with the high cost of Amazon Prime subscriptions...
Re:Pressing problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
Transport can be really difficult, to the point that doing 'more expensive' things like online ordering can work out cheaper.
Re:Transport?? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh stop with the left/right garbage. Democrats are just as responsible for ghettos as Republicans. Ghettos are deliberate policy, not an intractable problem that no one can figure out how to solve.
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It's not actually a myth. It's just something very, very, very rare that happens in odd circumstances. For example, someone from a wealthy family becomes poor but their parents still let them drive the pink Cadillac.
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Awww, I'm sorry - did I interrupt your partisan spamming? Please, get right back to not solving the problem.
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Indeed. Even if you have a direct bus line, a bus ticket costs about $2.50, so round trip is $5. One saved trip a month nearly pays for the prime membership.
Amazon isn't more expense (Score:2)
Re:Pressing problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Amazon sells a full grocery selection including fresh vegetables in many major cities. If you watch prices you can get stuff the same or cheaper than in stores and get it delivered for free!
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If you're thinking of buying a house in an area, go into a McDonald's and see if the bathrooms are locked. If they are, you're in a diverse part of town and should get the fuck out as soon as possible.
That can't be right, the McDonald's near me has a locked bathroom. Oh, crap!
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Food deserts are a myth created by SJWs who have nothing better to do with their time. There are plenty of ways to get to supermarket that's more than 1 mile away if you don't have a car. The entire notion is ridiculous. If you place a priority on feeding yourself and your family quality food you will find a way to get to a market. It's that simple.
And if you're on SNAP or other assistance there are far better things you should be spending your money on than a $72 Amazon Prime membership. Like bus or Uber f
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Uber fare to a damned supermarket.
I can see the headline on Breitbart. "EBT BOTTOM FEEDERS TAKING UBER TO THE SUPERMARKET"
Re: Pressing problem? (Score:2)
I live in a food desert. Of course, I live here on purpose and I drive. I have a tiny grocery store, about 25 miles away. McDonald's is seventy five minutes away. I kinda like it, actually.
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They really do help about 1% of the people who actually need the help, the rest are loafs who are freeloading, skating taxes and doing cash-only jobs to provide the illusion of being in need of assistance.
We have a robust fraud investigation office servicing all levels of the welfare system. Inappropriate provisioning is mostly in the bureaucracy, where the rules don't cover people with real need and so the caseworkers use their judgment and bend the rules a tad. Actual abuse is approximately zero.
2) the amount of soda, junk food and useless commodities spent using EBT
Some of that is bad habits (soda...); some of it is a matter of people not being able to carry perishable goods or afford the higher-priced not-junk-food. Unsurprisingly, people end up eating what's cheap--in
What about veterans? (Score:1)
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I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and believe that your joining and serving was 100% motivated by nothing else but altruism. Would you say the percentage of armed services personal who could enjoy that same classification makes it out of single digits?
So it's sort of a good deal...demented and sad... (Score:1)
I don't see how this is a good deal. Food stamps can't be used for the Prime membership cost (but lest's put that aside).
The price of food tends to be so overpriced, unless you are ordering from the middle of nowhere it's a waste of food stamps. Took a quick peak and a package of Thomas' English Muffins [amazon.com] is priced for $12.19. What. a. deal.
I guess families are supposed to survive on one-fifth (or less) of the food they can get by getting their butt to the grocery store.
Sure, I'm sure you could find
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According to their We don't accept EBT, food stamps, or any other payment method not listed for grocery purchases. [amazon.com]
I guess this is all moot. Rethinking the article, I guess this only is a discount on Prime membership, not opening up the floodgates for EBT purchases from an overlooked market.
Nice, just what I needed (Score:1)
I was paying $10.99 and was considering dropping it because I don't really use it that much, but I'll keep it at $5.99. I don't order food from it because I live 5 blocks from a grocery store, but I do watch stuff on Prime & buy stuff every few months.
What discount? (Score:2)
$72/yr used to be what Amazon charged for Prime until Bezos got greedy.
However, Prime isn't that good of a deal. "Free Shipping" isn't really free. When you compare prices of alternate suppliers linked to an item you find that their price for that time, plus their shipping charges, usually is close to or equals Amazon's Prime price for that item.
That leaves movies. Pay $10/mo to see movies you wouldn't walk across the street to see? No thanks. One can do that on NetFlix for $8/mo. But, no matter.
VA benefits ain't gov't assisance? (Score:1)
I was a food stamps recipient---I now realize that bad diet is,
like Monsanto, a war on the people.
The program is for 'People on Government assistance.'
It seems that only EBT holders need apply, not us Baby-burnin',
mother-stabbin', father-rapin' VietNam vets on a VA disability such as myself--Hell Vit-NAM is just some place where they're startin' to make them newfangled hard drives and such so far as Bezos is concerned, not some place where Rockefeller and Cardinal Spellman (Look
WTF? (Score:2)
Also, what are they buying, that's so time-sensitive, if they're that impoverished?