FYI, EBT is the card USA states allocate to recipients of SNAP/CalFresh/Foodstamp/Food Assistance. I just found out, Amazon is offering 50% of Prime to EBT and Medicaid card? Seriously? This is like opening up an avenue for building an empire of debt. Yea, they get the movies, the series, and the fast shipping. But does someone of this income level have the money to buy products on Amazon on a daily or monthly basis? There are odd cases where this service would be beneficial. Doing a little more research, Amazon takes EBT! Like what? This would open up the food market to low-income families, but is it really beneficial? What do you think is the pro and con of this? I believe fresh and healthy food should always be local.
Amazon owns whole foods and their Amazon fresh/pantry options are usually from the persons local area. Sooo usually you are getting local stuff. Although I am not sure about the prices of things as compared to in store but I think with free shipping you can probably make the case for it being about the same if you shop smartly due to not needing to buy gas for the trip. But like I said I am not sure if it's really worth it since I didnt live in the Amazon era when my family was using ebt (when I was a child) and now I have a good income so I just buy things on Amazon due to convenience :shrug:
Also as a side note, if you live in one of the many food deserts in the US (look it up if you where unaware) I am sure being able to use ebt on Amazon is insanely better than going grocery shopping hours away or buying all your food at the dollar general or gas station convenience store.
If Amazon gives the EBT users access to better food options (cheaper, healthier, more accessible, [whatever]) then this is a good thing, even if you can't win buzz-word bingo (fresh, local, "organic", etcerera) with it. The goal should be to keep people, especially families with children, supplied with nutrition & other necessities, not making idiots feel good.
Sounds like they are targeting economies of scale. Most of the cost of Prime is the shipping costs, the whole video library and what not is nothing as most prime videos are old stuff with small selection. So what amazon is doing is expanding into the low income market and lowering their overall shipping costs by shipping in bulk. As for if the cost makes sense, that depends? They sometimes have good deals on things you can buy bulk, especially things like rice/almond milk in bulk. I'm sure they have other things as well. Overall, their goal is mostly that more people are dependent on amazon and to grow as a brand and get people to rely on using them more. Last but not least, fresh and healthy foods being local? What does that mean? I don't think farmer's markets takes EBT do they? And all other foods are mostly imports anyways...
Amazon owns Whole Foods. So I think the prime membership is an attempt to bring in more customers from the lower income bracket. By the way people on EBT will pick the cheapest filling food to try to make the food last. These foods are generally not the healthiest, potatoes or hotdogs. Healthiest choice? Not really but cheap and filling yup.
♂️ I used to be a cashier and as long as the system allowed the payment then it’s all good. Pay for food with food, or cash balance. And the non-food items with cash. In case you didn’t know, EBTs have a monthly food balance and a monthly cash balance.