Hmmmm. Interesting. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/walmart-plus-membership-debuts-september-15-040112184.html Walmart (WMT) will debut its highly-anticipated annual subscription-based membership called Walmart+ this month. The annual membership, which launches nationwide on Sept. 15, will cost $98 per year, or $12.95 per month, the company said. The perk is a clear shot across the bow at Amazon (AMZN) — Walmart’s fiercest retail competitor — and is being offered at a discount to the tech giant’s wildly popular, $119 per year Prime subscription. The Walmart+ membership also features fuel discounts of up to 5 cents per gallon at Walmart, Murphy USA (MUSA) and Murphy Express gas stations. Members can access the Scan & Go feature in the Walmart App, allowing customers to pay on the spot and avoid the cashier lines.
By prospects, I assume. Sounds like typical marketing lingo to me. A lot of wishful thinking involved.
We now buy stuff at Walmart using my iPhone Walmart app. Order, pay online and pickup in parking lot. Don't have to get around any sick, or might be sick, people!
I don’t see it as being very competitive with Amazon. You have to order over $35 to get free shipping, and it looks to me like the grocery shopping delivery is about the only other viable benefit to the program. If people are paying to have their groceries delivered , then the monthly cost of Walmart + might or might not save them money. Amazon gives us free shipping on just about everything that we buy, regardless of the cost of the order. With Amazon, you also have the free Amazon Prime Videos, Amazon Prime Reading, and Amazon Music, as well as discounts if you shop at Whole Foods . You can set up your Prime Garage with the exact make/model of your vehicle; so if you order auto parts online, you are sure to get the one that actually fits your vehicle. There is a low-income program with Amazon that is about $5.99 a month, so we save almost half from the regular subscription cost, and I think that most of the people who have this low-income program with Amazon are not likely to switch to the Walmart one that costs twice as much, and people who can afford the full-price Amazon account will probably keep it because it offers more benefits for the price. We share our Amazon account with my son who lives in Washington, so they get all of the benefits that we have. We also have a Sam’s Club membership, (shared with my daughter) and order from that , both online and at the store; so between Amazon and Sam’s, there is no reason we would be about to use the Walmart + program.
Prime Video costs $8.99 per month. People have to order enough from Amazon to make Amazon Prime worth getting by the month or year. You are lucky to be able to share the costs of your Prime. Many don't have that privilege.
Also, we do not share the COST of our Prime membership, @Cody Fousnaugh . I pay each month for our subscription, which is the low-income plan, and then we share the USE of our membership with my son in Washington. All he had to do was sign in to my Prime account, and he also gets all of the benefits that we have. He is disabled, and has had several back operations, as well as open heart surgery, and it is hard for him and his wife to get by. We do not have much either, but I am thankful to be able to share with him, the things that we can share, and that give them a better life. I just realized that there is no reason that he can’t share our online Sam’s Club account, and will get him set up for that today, too. My daughter graciously added us to her Sam’s membership, so we can shop there online and at the club; and I know that she will be happy that we can share it with her brother, too.
I'll say the jury is out on how successful this venture will be. Some people couldn't care less about the "perks" of Amazon Prime and may be more interested in the gasoline discount Walmart will provide. If free grocery delivery is available in my area I will be taking a hard look at that. Also, stuff ordered on Walmart.com can be returned to any Walmart store and doesn't need to be re-packaged and shipped back to them. We have been Prime members almost from the get-go; I've been an Amazon customer since they were a bookstore startup in the '90s. (Wish I'd bought stock back then.) The Prime membership is a great value for us because I order a LOT of stuff (187 orders so far this year). That savings in shipping costs alone has offset the Prime membership fee by far. I also occasionally watch Prime Video and enjoy the free Kindle books. (I realize that "free" shipping, "free" videos, and "free" books are not actually "free", but I appreciate the value my Prime membership affords.)
I'll have to look at a Prime membership when I get good enough internet to stream stuff. But I never pay freight from Amazon...I always aggregate my orders to hit the minimum. Regarding this Walmart thing: They are pretty much the only game in town for me, and I buy a lot from their website as well. If skipping the checkout line is the main benefit, I'll pass. We'll have to see what propaganda valuable information Walmart sends me on it.
Walmart offers very little that I like, unfortunately. Given that I almost never receive anything that I order from Amazon in less than a week or two, their Prime membership value has been greatly reduced, however. While I use their Prime movies, they rarely add anything new to it.
I'm wondering if this will be a success for Walmart; I guess I need to research the "benefits." I placed an order for random stuff from Walmart.com yesterday and got free 2-day shipping with a $35 purchase; no "membership" required. I have no problem spending $35 at Walmart so I suppose that's what I'll continue to do.
I ordered a bottle of supplements from Walmart last Sunday (over $35) because they were cheaper than in the store. Delivery was scheduled for the following day (Monday) for free. They arrived Tuesday, but would have arrived on Monday if the local delivery company's driver had not taken the day off. You gotta wonder how they make any money doing this. As an aside, I was just looking at the Walmart credit card...5% cash back from online and pickup/delivery purchases, 2% in-store. Hmmmmm.......