The convenience of pulling up Amazon to purchase day to day needs frees me from the necessity of shopping, which I never found very gratifying. A reasonable membership gives me competitive prices, multiple marketplaces under one roof, and two day delivery to my door. All of the amazon-bashing that I read in the news is based on an obsolete model, and a ignorant comment regarding the USPS-I suspect that Amazon has done more to rescue a fiscally-strained post office than the US government has done in more than 20 years. This site is constantly pulling new offerings to make my life better (music, books, TV, etc). Thank you Amazon, from an appreciative customer!