Amazon
Amazon and it's founder are undoubtedly controversial, but putting controversy aside I provide an arguably objective perspective on its services.
Amazon Prime
I've been an Amazon Prime member for well over ten years. My online shopping preference began much earlier than the COVID pandemic and Amazon was the first retailer to master the craft, at least when taking into consideration access to such a wide variety of products.
I didn't start out as a Prime member. For me, it was a calculated decision over time: The volume of orders I made and the cost of shipping I paid made Prime a worthwhile investment.
But there's more....
Much more....
In fact, taking all of Prime's benefits into consideration and in comparison with other online services, it's categorically the best value subscriptions I enjoy, and one that I have no hesitation endorsing for its value over and above shipping, things like unlimited photo storage (even RAW image files, which I appreciate as an amateur photographer) and video streaming comparable to Netflix, including quality programming not available on other services.
Controversy about its founder and employment standards aside (which I'm in no reasonable position to evaluate objectively), there's no reason not to subscribe to Amazon Prime. I'm wholy and completely satisfied with my Prime experience over the last ten-plus years.
Amazon Music Unlimited
While not included with your Prime membership, if you're one to stream music, you should give serious consideration to Amazon Music Unlimited. When Google migrated its music offering to YouTube Music, I subscribed and became frustrated when I couldn't find a particular album.
I took Amazon up on its Music Unlimited free trial for ninety days and heavily browsed its offering, finding everything my ecclectic tastes could think of. Within the first thirty days of the trial, I cancelled my YouTube Music subscription.
Now, Amazon Music Unlimited is my go-to for albums, playlists, and podcasts for similar subscriptions costs to competitive platforms.
(Full disclosure: I didn't compare the offerings of other services, like iTunes or Spotify - I'm not an Apple user and Spotify seems focused on contemporary music which doesn't appeal to me as much as that of earlier generations.)
Amazon Prime Photos
The clincher for me is Amazon Prime unlimited photo storage. The cost of Prime membership include an unlimited capacity of storage for any photo format. I'm an amateur photographer and take a substantial number of photos, usually in RAW format. (RAW photo format in my case is about 20 megapixals for each image.) I quickly fill up my back-up hard drives and, admittedly, I probably save a lot more photos than I should. The benefit of Prime's unlimited photo storage is that I can just pop them in until I'm ready to sort through them all.
Serious photographers, even us amateurs, will recommend that you keep at least one back-up of all your photos. In my case, I keep two back-ups. Cloud storage is convenient, but it can also be costly depending on how much you need or use. With Amazon Prime, which I'm already paying for just for reduced shipping costs and streaming, I have unlimited access that I can use as easily as dropping images into a folder on my desktop.
Conclusion
I'm a fan. Amazon's founder may be controversial, but he rose to his position of prominence because he found something that works and was able to market it. He's in the spotlight because he's rich (okay, he's wealthier than most other human beings can even conceive), but let's be honest - Amazon provides exceptional services for what you pay. Sure, he's rich, but he provides consumers with excellent quality at affordable costs.
(I've recently added Kindle to my Amazon repertoire. I started using several years ago, stopped, and restarted over the past couple of months. I'm amazed at what you can get for free. Avid readers can subscribe and get a whole lot more. It deserves its own review; maybe for a future post....)