[Sigia-l] Amazon Prime (subscription-like service) - an innovation?

[Bill Pawlak]

Has anyone tried this yet
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/subs/primeclub/signup/main.html)?  I'd
imagine you'd have to shop quite a bit to make it worth your while...
but here's a snip from the welcome message I just received:

"We expect Amazon Prime to be expensive for Amazon.com in the short
term.  In the long term, we hope to earn even more of your business,
which will make it good for us, too.  We hope you enjoy our latest
innovation."

Is this really an innovation?  Think they'll try to patent it?  It's
different from Netflix in that the annual fee only covers shipping on
products whereas something like Netflix covers the rental of the
product and the shipping...  It seems like if anything it'll clutter
up an already unwieldy interface...

Any thoughts?

bill