<p>Having been in college before the days of Amazon Prime, I often went to the convenience stores (like Bartell's Drugs and the University Bookstore) that were near campus to buy all sorts of things. </p>
<p>Nowadays, since I can always find cheaper+better products off Amazon (and also since I can see the reviews), I hardly even go outside to buy anything anymore. It's just not worth it. Fresh food is the only area where Amazon lags, and even for that, it's starting to catch up. Amazon even just started to list prices per fluid oz. Like literally, it is now so incredibly easy to find whatever is cheapest and best these days.</p>
<p>In fact, Amazon Prime practically normalizes the costs of living for so many things. Like, if you lived in New York, you could literally get most of your necessities through Amazon, and then you would only have to deal with higher rent prices (and maybe transportation if you used it)</p>
<p>Don’t single out Amazon, when so many other online retailers sell the same things for cheaper/similar prices. Will online stores kill off retail stores? No, not any time soon. Are online stores heavily competing with retail stores? Yes. Is Amazon Prime/Amazon/any other online bookstore killing off campus bookstores? No. Campus bookstores are killing themselves off by pricing books at full ******** msrp that no one can afford. However, campus bookstores still make do with selling overpriced college clothing and other stuff.</p>
<p>Amazon Prime is worth singling out because it offers free two-day shipping (and the Prime membership is free for college students!). My freshman year in college I bought more things at the local Staples because the cost of shipping negated any savings from ordering online and I did not want to wait for a week for my items to arrive. I haven’t set food into Staples since I have my Amazon Prime membership.</p>
<p>Well, I’m used to buying most things off Amazon anyway because I come from an area where there aren’t any decent retailers nearby. So my practice hasn’t really changed. The only things I don’t buy off Amazon are clothing and food. Everything else (books, technology, movies, games, misc.) I tend to buy off Amazon.</p>
<p>No - I currently have Amazon prime and it is not all it is hyped up to be. I would estimate that 75% of items actually don’t offer free 2 day shipping. I must say though, Amazon is absoultely amazing.</p>
This is nonsense. All items that are fulfilled/shipped by Amazon have free 2 day shipping. If your statement is taken to be true, then 75% of the items on Amazon are shipped by third parties, which is clearly not the case.</p>
<p>It is true that there are a lot of third-party sellers on Amazon. That being said, I have never had a hard time finding items that qualified for free two-day shipping. Just use Prime-eligible shipping as one of your search options and you are set!</p>
<p>Depending on your state, you’re still supposed to report items on your taxes that you did not pay your state’s tax on. And even worse than that, there are some states that want you to report anything you bought out of state (even if you already paid that state’s tax) so that you can then be charged your state’s tax as well.</p>