Amazon Prime Membership Discounts

Greetings,
Amazon recently announced that they are offering discounted Prime memberships to people who receive government assistance:
https://www.marketplace.org/2017/06/06/business/amazon-takes-aim-low-income-shopper

Amazon also offers Prime memberships at a discount for students:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201894770

The Market Place article notes that Amazon "going toe-to-toe with Walmart".  Generally speaking, traditional brick & mortar retailers are facing considerable change.  While it's true that many of these same retailers also have web sites, Amazon is quite a competitor.  Prime memberships make it easier for people to save on shipping costs when they order merchandise.  For college students who may not have access to a car and have limited time to spend shopping, this sort of thing is appealing.  For someone who's on government assistance and also may have limited transportation options, it's like getting access to warehouse club or big box retailer pricing minus having to haul everything home.  We're definitely living in interesting times.