Is It Possible To Outsmart Amazon This Holiday Season?

If you’re paying $99 a year for Amazon Prime, you may want to go there when you do your holiday shopping. But there are a couple things to keep in mind, Recode’s Jason Del Rey says. “Amazon is super-aggressive on pricing around the most popular products,” Del Rey said on the latest episode of Too Embarrassed to Ask. “So they give the perception that they have the best prices around, and oftentimes they do. But when you get into the ‘longer-tail products,’ so maybe not as popular, not bestsellers, they often find time to make a profit margin there.” In other words: Shop around! Though even when you can find a cheaper price, you may discover that the savings are not worth it to make the leap — which is all by design. “I think it’s the brilliance of Prime, the psychological lock-in that some people feel,” Del Rey said. “‘I’m already spending $99 a year, let me feel like I’m getting my money’s worth.’ An extra 99 cents here or there may not be enough to move away from them.” On the new podcast, he also talked with Recode’s Kara Swisher and The Verge’s Lauren Goode about why he expects an increase to the Prime membership cost “in the next two years,” and why drone delivery is still a ways off. Later in the show, the trio chatted about what to do if you haven’t been able to snag an NES Classic and why Apple Pay and Android Pay are probably safer than credit cards when you’re buying in-store. Read more at Recode.