Good day everyone,
I am in the midst of setting up a holiday home in France in the Nievre region and am trying to do as much as possible in advance from the States to lessen my stress.
Here in the States I use Amazon a lot. I use Prime as well.
Does anyone here haver any tips on whether Amazon or Prime is useful in France? Should I create a new account just for using in France? Are the prices any better than say BricoMarche or Brico Depot? Or is it just the convenience? Or is the convenience not really there as much as in the States?
I set up a VPN to a French server and could create a new user if needed but I am wondering what suggestions this forum has for me?
I think you can use the same Amazon account - I did between UK and France
Prime is useful but not next day delivery (as in UK) normally 2-3 days whereas normally delivery is about a week.
There tend to be a couple of Brico stores in each largish town - Leroy Merlin & Brico DĂ©pĂ´t seem to be on the lower side of price, you may have a smaller one nearby that will be more. Also Toolstation.fr is pretty good also.
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Hi @FireinFrance and welcome to SF
Amazon yes, absolutely but as to Prime, not so certain (edit: as @Mat_Davies suggests)…
AFAK, there is no need to set up individual accounts for the various Amazon establishments. I use (used) .uk and now post Brexit mainly just .fr and .de (Germany) and Amazon recognises me without further effort on my part.
Remember of course that your purchases in Europe will be in EUR so you may need to ensure that you pay in the correct currency rather than just rely on Amazon to get you the best exchange rate USD to EUR. You’ll need to attach the different cards to your account to achieve that IIRC.
Agree with Graham. And yes it’s seamless between the different countries - same password and in fact if you find something on Amazon UK or US and just change in the heading to dot FR you’ll find out whether what you want is available here.
We live in the country and whilst we have good DIY shops and supermarkets in our local town the sheer convenience of Amazon makes it an important retail channel for us. We have Prime and occasionally things arrive the next day but more usually 2-3 days as @Mat_Davies said. We watched Mrs Maisel and Mozart in the Jungle but rarely reach for Prime movies these days and have never checked out their music.
Amazon saves me having to shop around for stuff that local shops don’t always carry in stock or only carry one example of, so I can buy an electric tool locally but not necessarily my preferred brand. I can sit here at 11pm and just press “buy” and it’s done: stuff I’ve ordered through them recently tend to be refills, repeat buys or slight quirky things or dog stuff that costs a fortune at the vets: Karcher cartridge, sequestered iron, Stihl blades, special herbal teas, cosequin, fortiflora, mini solar fountain, seresto collars, black & decker cordless saw, lightweight electric lawnmower, black & decker bobbins for strimmer, felco blades for secateurs, makita drill (after advice on SF) and so on, and so on OH’s list would be totally different - books, kindle, DVDs, electronics/computer stuff.
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You might also consider using Amazon Spain as items are often cheaper there than France.
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as is also the case with .de
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We buy enough items from Amazon.fr that Prime does save money on shipping.
No idea if people in French cities get next day delivery from Amazon.fr, but 2-3 days is average for us out in the sticks.
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Wow. Than you for all the replies.
I will just add the new address to my account then.
Has anyone tried adding Prime again to use it in two countries? I like it enough to purchase it again for the faster delivery and also the Prime Video content might be worthwhile. I can VPN back to the States for US content but perhaps .fr content might have movies to help me with my French?
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We find Amazon Prime is well worth paying for as in addition to faster delivery we get Amazin Video which has an excellent selection of tv to watch, also can buy popular films for next to nothing. When out in our camping car I have fixed a google dongle thing to the tv so can stream Amazon video from my phone to tv. And all for about 40 euros? Per year, it’s a no brainer for us 
We manage perfectly well without any Amazon account! There are all sorts of other suppliers of just about everything. Sometimes local (in that our Gedimat is happy to add items to a delivery lorry that’s coming our way) and sometime online. Probably over a year I might end up paying 50€ more, but its been worth it and makes me feel more connected when I get a bonjour and a smile in the bakery from the man from BricoPro.
Last year I paid for prime in both the UK and France.
However I have no cancelled both.
I don’t order from the UK any more due to customs duty, double VAT and handling fees.
Furthermore many UK suppliers will not ship to France any more.
Cancelled French prime because most of my DIY etc has been completed.
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I’ve used Amazon a lot since the nineties. Then I had most stuff, mostly books, shipped from the States. I now have a .fr, a .co.uk and a .com account but I primarily (no pun intended) use .fr, especially since Brexit. I only have Prime on .fr and think it’s worthwhile but not really sure. Too lazy to check 
I do now try and buy from local suppliers if the prices are similar to Amazon. I don’t think Amazon is particularly cheaper anymore (for example printer ink in Carrefour is only a couple of euros more expensive) but it’s a good benchmark as you browse in bricks and mortar shops. I think we all have a duty to try and make sure Amazon doesn’t kill the shops in our towns and villages but some of them, who should know better, Darty, FNAC, etc are making it difficult with their limited stock and often indifferent service.
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I think it depends whether one wants to “browse”. I loathe shopping with a deep and utter loathing. So any idea of wanting to hunt around to find out if I can get what I need locally - forget it. I’m sorry. I know @JaneJones and others find the Amazon model repugnant but for me it’s a joy. As I’ve implied above, why would I want to spend half a day trailing round the local DIY shops seeing whether they stock Stihl blades for the small cordless strimmer (they don’t) when I can place an order at 11pm and spend my daylight hours gardening?
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I used the wrong word Sue. Benchmarking was the word I meant to emphasis.
Many highstreet shops (not only in France) were and some continue to be rip offs. So if I’m in FNAC and see some, say, camera stuff I’d like then there and then I’ll compere them to the Amazon price. Accepting the higher overheads of the bricks and mortar enterprise I will, if the price differential isn’t too high, buy it there. But if that are taking the Mickey, and many are, I won’t. Same for Darty, etc.etc.
I have the same approach to banking. I support my local enterprise but I want value for money too.
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Amazon now links your data across all country sites based on same email address. They didn’t do that before, it’s only the past few years. I preferred to keep what I told each country or bought in each country separate, but without asking Amazon has combined them all.
Ebay did similar longer ago.
I trialled Prime in France and did not keep it. It made almost no difference to delivery time. I feel it’s for city people who might want something same day or following morning. That kind of promise simply can’t be met rurally here. So parcels arrive as soon as they would anyway, without Prime, or maximum a day earlier.
Prime France only about 48 euros per year but worth about that. Extremely limited selection of free Prime books and I’m not sure who would really appreciate their also limited music selection. IME prices displayed were manipulated by Amazon according to whether they knew you were a Prime member with your particular address (might have been because mine is rural so limited opportunities / possibly more cost to deliver fast).
Interesting for Amazon is how they are developing for business accounts in each country, one to watch. And some offers are made to newer signups such as discounts on gift card purchase on better discounted terms. They also track IP addresses and so far as I can tell hate VPN’s.
If anyone feels like trying Prime, maybe pick a period when Prime Day and its offers would occur. Or if you have a few DIY or garden stuff deliveries coming up at a time, like March, when they would actually stock the stuff you want (they didn’t Jan-Feb for me).
When I cancelled after first month they offered another 30 days. Then again at the end of the 2nd month so 3 months in all. They finally accepted my cancellation at the end of the 3rd month.
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What we found with each site was that, although we could only see the books we were interested in on one of the sites, if you copy and paste the ISBN from one site to amother, you can order it there. It’s what we did in the UK when ordering French books and it seems to go across platforms.
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Amazon Germany can be in English too, not sure about the other sites though. Apart from UK of course, which I no longer use, except for Kindle downloads.
Amazon France can be as well.
Interesting, but they don’t make a thing about it do they, whereas the German site announce it. I must have a look. 