I'm an Amazon Mom

When I first heard about Amazon Mom, I was quite intrigued, I didn't fully understand all the benefits but I still wanted to join anyway. At the time I tried to sign up, they were in the process of transitioning the Amazon Mom program to make it a paid membership. Basically to be an Amazon mom you need to have a paid membership with Amazon Prime.  Prime is in many ways similar to the paid memberships at wholesale warehouses like Costco or Sam's Club.
I was offered a free trial of Amazon Prime, but I didn't take full advantage of it because I didn't have much to buy at that time nor was I aware that Amazon carried such a wide range of merchandise. Once the trial was over I decided not to continue with it because I didn't think it was worth it. That was until the baby arrived. I suddenly came to really appreciate the convenience of ordering online versus shopping in store with a baby. Shopping online saves my time and gas, and helps me easily compare products and prices. I found myself going back to the Amazon Mom page over and over until I finally gave in and signed up for it. It felt like such a waste of money paying the $79 annual membership fee, but I convinced myself it was worth try, and I tell you, its been the best $79 dollars I've spent in a while. Here is why

• Amazon mom allows me to save 20% on subscriptions for diapers and wipes, which is pretty darn awesome. That 20% makes quite a big difference over time. (Even though we use cloth diapers, we still need disposables for daycare.)
• Free two-day shipping on all items that are 'prime eligible' with no minimum amount. This is my favorite feature of the program. Sometimes I need something right away and can't wait around for days for it, but I also don't have the time to drive to the store for it. With Amazon mom I am guaranteed to get my orders within 2 days, sometimes even faster. Plus its free!
• Hassle free returns. This is one of the best things about Amazon Mom, being able to return items without any drama. Returning merchandise to a store can be tedious, especially if you cant find the receipt, some stores like Target make it their ultimate mission to be as difficult as possible if you try to return a product.  Another thing is that most stores have a 60 day or 90 day return policy which is silly for baby items because most people shop in anticipation of the baby's arrival, so my return policy would expire before I even got around to using the product, which means I would be forced to keep it even if it doesn't work right or I don't like it.  With Amazon Mom I get to return anything I don't want easily. I just print a free return label and then drop it off at my local UPS or post office and I get my money back, sometimes they refund the money and tell me not to bother shipping the item back. Does it get better than that? This feature keeps me loyal to Amazon because even if a product arrives and is not as described, or doesn't do what its supposed to do I just send it right back and order something else.
• Amazon has great reviews I can rely on. Amazon buyers really do a great job of putting up good reviews of baby products complete with their personal photos. This really plays a big role in helping me choose products. At a glance I can see what the majority opinion is of a product, if many people are complaining about the same thing, it gives me a heads up and I can make an informed decision. Nine times out of ten I will agree with the majority view and will be happy with my purchase
• Amazon Mom often have deals, coupons and promotions on baby items which lets me save even more money.
• Amazon prices are sometimes the best price out there. Why pay more if you don't have to?
• You also get unlimited streaming of many movies and television shows
• One Kindle book to borrow for free each month from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library

A few things I don't like about being an Amazon mom

• In some ways amazon is like eBay,  there are many different sellers and some are more trustworthy than others. Some sellers send out products that are not as described; I have so far experienced receiving items that were: the wrong color, the wrong style, a completely different product from what I ordered, as well as two products that appeared to be used. I have also heard of people getting fake Ergo baby carriers from Amazon, which sucks because who wants to pay full price for a fake product? 
• Smaller priced items are sometimes more expensive on Amazon. I find that items under $25 that can be found at Walmart,Target or Babies R Us, are much more expensive on amazon. I'll give an example;

This medicine dispenser by Safety 1st is listed at $7.99 on Amazon

but the exact same thing is sold for $2.49 at Babies R Us

That's basically 3 times the price!! Of course if I went to Babies  R Us I would have to pay tax, but tax would only be 17 cents, so there is still no justification for Amazon to charge so much more for it.
I have found that this is consistently the case with certain lower price items, Amazon will have a much higher price than the regular retail value. so I always always compare prices before buying.

Overall, despite some minor issues I've had with a few sellers,  it has been totally worth it, I've saved a lot of money by being part of the Amazon Mom program and I'm definitely going to renew my membership when the first year is up