Also... it beats the discount I got back when I worked fast food. Not saying some places don't do better, but I do fear the entitlement of my peers here.
No, prime has music, instant video, free shipping, discounts, etc. It is a loss leader that can costs Amazon way more than $100 per member. Otherwise Amazon would scrap the 10% and give all its employees prime.
On entitlement, It's not entitlement. If Amazon can't compete or doesn't want to compete on perks, that is their preprogative. Entitlement is not in Amazon's vocabulary. They have no concept of entitlement. When Amazon employees are forced to wake up at 3am to fix something it's not because Amazon feels entitled to their sleep time. It's because Amazon has devolved into barbarianism and raw power to force people to do things is all that matters there. There is no concept of entitlement because entitlement would mean some rule of law exists. The only reason a discount probably exists is because there is some small psychological benefit to the company that is greater than the (tiny) cost. So when someone feels they should get something more from an employer in that environment it is simply reciprocal hostility.
Yes if you buy $1000 of merchandise, you will end up spending $900 and then you can buy prime with the $100 you saved. However, you have to buy the $1000 of merchandise first. In reality that $100 is eaten by sales tax since if you work at Amazon you are going to be in a state where they have tax nexus.
I'm torn. On the one hand, I applaud you for not treating $1,000 in merchandise as a given. On the other... this just feels like an entitlement argument. It is just $100 we are talking about. For benefits that, if you use them, are almost certainly worth more than that.
On one hand, $100 is small potatoes and employees shouldn't care that much.
On the other hand, people are often irrational and do care that much. Which makes it kind of weird that Amazon doesn't provide free Prime to their employees, because that $100 value (and what's their actual cost?) probably buys a lot more than $100 of employee satisfaction.
So while I certainly wouldn't say that Amazon is somehow mistreating their workers by not giving them this stuff, I do think it's kind of weird that they don't.
Agreed on the feeling of entitlement. When I first moved into the industry I found it striking too.
It is healthy for the industry for people to have and share this information though. Employees in every industry talk about how they and their peers are compensated, and share scuttlebutt about which companies have better pay and benefits than others as a way of ensuring that they're getting a competitive wage.
Based on what they are charging for it, basically yes. They must lose money on it though. My friend ordered a fridge on Amazon prime. I bet 48 hour shipping on a fridge is pretty close to the cost of amazon prime.
