Jason Levine nails a big problem I’ve had lately with Amazon.com but never thought to write up. These days it’s nearly impossible to tell whether an item is offered by Amazon.com or one of their affiliated merchants, and I think most people (myself included) would prefer to buy from Amazon.com itself when possible. I’m not even going to get into the problem I had where I bought a gift from Toys R Us via Amazon.com, they charged me for shipping because they didn’t honor my Amazon.com membership, and then they offered free shipping on all Christmas gifts the next day.

Amazon Prime is an excellent program, but it has made me very sensitive to just how Amazon.com’s business operates. I only want to order things that let me take advantage of it.