In an announcement made Tuesday, Amazon said that it will be offering a 45% discount on its Prime subscription service to shoppers who receive government aid from welfare or food stamp programs, a move that experts say takes aim at Walmart’s key customer base. "We know when people try Prime they love it, because they save time and money with low prices on millions of items, unlimited access to premium videos and music, and fast, convenient delivery," said Greg Greeley, vice president of Amazon Prime. To qualify for the discount, consumers will have to provide a valid Electronics Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, which is used by state welfare departments to issue benefits. Customers will be able to qualify for the subscription every 12 months up to 4 times, but the subscription cannot be bought with an EBT card. Members are free to cancel the service at any time and can sign up for a free 30-day trial here. After qualifying with their EBT card, Sales new members will be able to take advantage of unlimited free shipping on qualifying Amazon purchases, as well as numerous Amazon Prime services, including Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Reading, and Prime Photos.
Other benefits of the subscription include exclusive Audible channels, a free pre-release Kindle book every month, a Twitch prime subscription, free same-day delivery options, and free two-hour delivery options under Prime Now. The cost of the service, which is typically $10.99 per month or $99 per year, has been reduced under the program to $5.99 per month. It’s Amazon’s latest move in an effort to cater to lower-income customers, many of which might otherwise prefer Walmart. Previously, the company created its $10.99 per month Prime offer - an alternative to paying $99 per year -- and said that it would start accepting food stamps for its grocery items, according to a report from The Verge. The company also recently lowered its threshold requirements for free shipping to cater to a wider base of online shoppers. Take a Home Warranty Quiz. Get matched with an Authorized Partner. Christopher Maynard is a New York-based writer and editor who has worked as a security guard, high school teacher, beauty theatrical lighting designer and volunteer fireman. He is a graduate of Marist College. Get the news you need delivered right to you. Thank you, you have successfully subscribed to our newsletter! Enjoy reading our tips and recommendations.
Common shares outstanding plus shares underlying stock-based awards totaled 517 million on June 30, 2020, compared with 510 million one year ago. "This was another highly unusual quarter, and I couldn’t be more proud of and grateful to our employees around the globe," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. "As expected, we spent over $4 billion on incremental COVID-19-related costs in the quarter to help keep employees safe and deliver products to customers in this time of high demand-purchasing personal protective equipment, increasing cleaning of our facilities, following new safety process paths, adding new backup family care benefits, and paying a special thank you bonus of over $500 million to front-line employees and delivery partners. We’ve created over 175,000 new jobs since March and are in the process of bringing 125,000 of these employees into regular, full-time positions. And third-party sales again grew faster this quarter than Amazon’s first-party sales.
Amazon’s top priority is providing for the health and safety of our employees and partners, and the company spent more than $4 billion in the second quarter on incremental COVID-19 related initiatives to help keep employees safe, provide additional compensation to our employees and delivery partners, and deliver products to customers. Amazon provided a one-time Thank You bonus totaling over $500 million to all front-line employees and partners who were with the company throughout the month of June. This benefit provides employees with up to 10 days of company-subsidized emergency backup child or adult care. Amazon introduced Distance Assistant to help keep employees safe by providing them with live feedback on their social distancing via a 50-inch monitor. Amazon made the software and AI behind this innovation available via open source so that anyone can create their own Distance Assistant at no cost and get up and running with just a monitor, computer, and camera. Amazon is collaborating with national medical care group Crossover Health to pilot Amazon Neighborhood Health Centers, which are new medical facilities available to Amazon employees and their families. Data was cre ated by GSA Content Gen erator D emov ersion!