Of the many things that have changed over the last several decades, shopping may have had one of the biggest overhauls.
Around the middle of the last century, for example, most Americans probably went to several different specialty shops to procure their weekly essentials. They may have gone to a market for fresh produce, a butcher for meat, a pharmacy for their medications, and a specialty clothing store—plus a tailor—for their apparel.
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It may have taken a few days just to complete every errand that needed to be done to run a household.
Fast-forward a couple of decades, and that all changed with the advent of malls. Pretty much everything you needed to do could be done within one of the giant retail centers. Many malls contained everything from salons to food courts and, of course, levels and levels of clothing and accessory stores.
Nowadays, though, even going to a mall seems outdated. Unless you’re in search of a good deal at an outdoor outlet mall, many of us do our weekly shopping at one or two stores. Most big box retailers, like Target and Walmart, offer everything a modern family might need: groceries, prescriptions, clothing, household cleaning supplies, pet needs, and more.
Amazon has millions of loyal customers who like the company for more than just shopping convenience.
Image source: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
Shoppers love Amazon for convenience
And that’s not even considering all the online shopping we do these days.
If you’re like one of the 200 million Amazon (AMZN) Prime members, chances are you don’t even leave your house for a lot of your necessities.
Like many other online giants, Amazon offers everything from water bottles to watches, safety razors to sneakers, cast iron skillets to cat litter.
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In fact, according to some estimates, around 40% of all online purchases in the U.S. are made on Amazon. For perspective, the other largest online retailers are Walmart, with over 6% market share and Apple, with over 3%.
This means that most of us are using that ‘buy with one click’ button pretty liberally, which pays off. Amazon’s most recently completed fiscal year revenue was $574.79 billion.
Amazon makes a key change
But there’s so much more to Amazon than just shopping convenience. The bulk of its profit actually comes from Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing program that services the U.S. government, Sony, and Coca-Cola, among many other titans of industry.
Amazon has also been working to expand plenty of other consumer-facing services. Amazon Prime Video, the company’s streaming service, which includes hit programs like “The Terminal List,” “Jack Ryan,” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” boasts over 200 million monthly viewers.
Amazon also offers a music streaming service, Amazon Music, for an additional fee.
Until recently, Amazon Music Unlimited, which featured music, podcasts, and its audiobook service Audible, cost $10.99.
But Amazon just announced it would raise the price of its Unlimited service by $1, making it $11.99 per month. The Unlimited Family Plan is also getting hiked by $3 to $19.99 per month (or $199.00 per year).
Prime members are offered a $1 monthly discount on the service.
“In order to bring you even more content and new features, we’re updating the price of select Amazon Music Unlimited plans,” Amazon said.
The move comes after Spotify (SPOT) raised its monthly subscription price in June 2024, also to $11.99 per month.
