We have Amazon packages showing up at our door at least three times per week.
The Prime increase to $119, however, really has me pissed off. I understand that business expenses tend to go up, but I resent paying for Thursday Night Football in my Prime fee. It's like Amazon hasn't learned anything from cable TV's problems.
At renewal time I'm going to switch to monthly Prime-- and only enroll every other month.
There are no Amazon purchases that I make that can't wait until the next month.
At $12.99/mo, six months per year, that's less than $78/yr and it won't impact my life one bit.
If they raise the price again I'll go to one out of three months.
My guess is that Walmart is getting ready to answer Amazon in a big way, so there should be more options on the horizon, as well.
Someone in our family has always been a student so we just take advantage of those prices.
Additionally what some do is buy "gift of prime" which is a year of prime "giftcard" at the lower price. Therefore, when their original subscription expires, they still pay the lower price when others cant. Many are still doing that for the original price of prime.
It bothers me, too, when "value-added" services are used to bump up the base price.
I have Prime-- I've never used Prime Music, and likely use Prime Video less than I could just pay individual rental charges.
A few years back, I got ticked at Wendy's for "value added" pricing-- cheese on burgers. I don't eat cheeseburgers. Before the menu change, I benefited by ordering a hamburger instead of a cheeseburger. I can still opt out of cheese, but I can't opt out of the price of the cheese. It's close to work, though, so I still eat there. Wendy's- 1: me-0.
Since I do order stuff I can't wait a month on, I imagine Amazon will win this round over me, too.
The alternative is to just add things to your cart until you reach the $35 threshold. Maybe that means a once per week order and no Prime membership needed at all.