When you go to Amazon.com and make a purchase that totals $25 or more, you get free shipping. This is a pretty brilliant scheme. I know that whenever I shop on Amazon, I always feel like I'm missing out on savings if I buy something under $25.
But another, more subtle aspect is that Amazon sell a bunch of stuff for just a few bucks under $25. So since shipping normally costs almost $6, you're going to want to get your order up to $25. But then all the products that sell for only a few bucks don't qualify for Super Saver Shipping! So it's an incentive to spend significantly more than you otherwise would.
Recently I had an order that came to $23.99. So I searched for a while around Amazon for the cheapest item that qualified for Super Saver Shipping. I finally found it: FastCap Glu-Bot Yorker Tips, 5 pack. They had it marked down from $1.50 to $0.99, so I actually had to buy two. But with the savings on shipping, it was still a logical decision.
Think about what a ridiculous effect of consumerism it is that I'm receiving two packages of Glu-Bot Yorker Tips, whatever the hell those are, because I took advantage of the system. Not only that, but Amazon has actually ended up putting these in a separate shipment! A carrier service is being paid to carry a package with two sets of five useless Glu-widgets to my address, a package which I will promptly throw away without opening. Instead of me paying Amazon for one shipment, Amazon is eating the cost of two shipments. And there is also the environmental cost of all the steps in the process of getting a useless product from the factory to my trash can.
So having discovered Glu-Bot Yorker Tips, it changes the game of shopping for small orders on Amazon.com. Now you can expect to grab at least a little overall discount if your main order is as low as $20.
3 comments:
So at least open the package...I don't know what they might be either, but I know I would want to find out! You might even find a use for them or give them to a scrapbooker or child. Think of the joy that could create. Now the economic value of your thrift becomes large!
Or, you can visit filleritems dot com -- just fill in the amount shy of $25 you are, and it generates a list!
I found your post when I was searching for filleritems (I'd heard about it, but didn't know the name) -- I just googled for "amazon super saver shipping."
In my case, it was a DVD of a 1976 movie, "The Wackiest Wagon Train in the West" starring Bob Denver (of Gilligan's Island fame) that did the trick.
http://www.pricetaker.com/filleritems/
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