Prime Day Sales: Tanking Christmas Revenues in July

[FundieFarmer]

If you're an Amazon Prime member today, you get discounts off a lot of stuff. If you're not a Prime member, don't worry- you can have 30 free days, which includes today! But is it worth it? Have you gotten anything? What about all the hoopla big box stores are saying about Amazon ruining Black Friday by creating a year-round doorbuster sale mentality? Will Prime Day really tank the Christmas economy? Is Amazon's one-day sale truly changing the shopper's annual experience and simultaneously devaluing the Black Friday experience? Has Walmart's retaliatory sale been comparable? What about the "All Day Deals!" that wound up to only apply to a limited number of a specific item? So many questions, so little time!

I'll say that I've been successful in one area- I bought a Harry Potter book set for a soon-to-be-delivered nephew of mine at half-off, which was a pretty big savings. But other than that, I've passed on pretty much everything. I also don't buy the drama about the sale ruining the Christmas shopping time.

[Maggie Mae]

I waited to see if any of the stuff I had in my cart went on sale. That's it. I'm not one to buy stuff just because it's on sale.

[sparkles]

I never shop Black Friday or Cyber Monday just because it's Black Friday or Cyber Monday no big whoop here, but I am a Prime member since I do most of my non-grocery shopping on Amazon. I'm just pissed that nothing in my wishlish is on sale. And I missed out on the ankle brace that I really do need.

[Maggie Mae]

Also I want to point out how unfair it is that sales are ALWAYS tied to Eastern US Time. Why can't we just .. not. Make them (East Coast) wait until noon or something.

[MysteryHaggis]

I got Lists of Note for £15 instead of the £20-odd it's been for months, and a couple of things at decent discounts for my OH's birthday, that's all. Not that impressed with the rest. It looked like the tech items had decent discounts but I'm skint so no joy.

[DGayle]

My money's all tied up in that Best Buy think that Best Buy decided to back out of. So I don't have money to spend on Amazon today.

[guitar_villain]

I bought $100 of gift cards since they are always easy gifts and they gave a $10 promotional code with them. (Plus the additional 3% from the credit card).

Other than that the selection was just too random. I'm not the sort of person who buys stuff on a whim because it's cheap, and there aren't a lot of things I want to shell out for right now.

[Geechee Girl]

Amazon already has me on lock. Nothing in my cart, nor my subscription items are on sale today.

[FundieFarmer]

Same as many of yall; no unnecessary items here. The book set was a baby shower gift (because this shower is going to be huge and I'm opposed to throwaway gifts), and I actually just broke my hairdryer a few seconds ago and primed one for myself that was 60% off, which was awesome. Other than that, no deals here. It's less enticing than Christmas shopping in the sense that there's no major gifting sprees coming up to necessitate buying for others, unless you've got baby showers or birthdays and whatnot.

[doggie]

Never saw anything I wanted like usual on cyber Monday. I was thinking of the beast pump though

[Mela99]

I was so disappointed. No good deals. Nothing I wanted.

[Chowder Head]

I read alot of reviews . basically comparing prime day to amazon's garage sale.

[FundieFarmer]

I'd agree with that. I found myself in the "Warehouse Sale" totally by accident, and everything was used and frankly, gross. Definitely not what I would expect from Amazon.

[Maggie Mae]

I'd agree with that. I found myself in the "Warehouse Sale" totally by accident, and everything was used and frankly, gross. Definitely not what I would expect from Amazon.

How can you tell if it's "gross"?

[FundieFarmer]

How can you tell if it's "gross"?

You know how sometimes you see the online photos of things on eBay or Amazon and you wonder why the person tried to sell it again, perhaps because it's stained or covered in dirt, or just flat out broken/unusable/obsolete? That's basically what I saw from most of those items. I'm all for buying used, because you can find some seriously awesome stuff (and of course, save the difference!). The things in the Amazon warehouse weren't that awesome stuff. Maybe someone else found some gems, but it looked worse than the worst garage sale to me.

One person told me that Amazon used this sale as a way to get rid of items from non-Amazon sellers. Not sure how true that is.

[Cartmann99]

How can you tell if it's "gross"?

Is the warehouse sale different than the warehouse deals area? I've bought some stuff from Amazon through warehouse deals and been very pleased with most of my purchases. I did receive an electric oil-filled radiator through them that was DOA, but the return process and refund was just as easy as for the "new" side. I tried again and the second heater through warehouse deals worked great.

I bought some cat food and painter's caulk and noticed the digital credit for Prime members who selected slower shipping was $3 instead of $1 on Prime day. Even though I selected the slower shipping option, UPS brought my package today. That happens to me at least 50% of the time, so I usually choose slower shipping to get the credit. YMMV :)

[Buzzard]

I was not impressed with the offerings but managed to find an essential oil diffuser I really wanted for my office. I have been stalking it for a while at whole foods (I am NOT into essential oils, I just really like lavender).

It was a BRILLIANT move on amazon's part, as evidenced by their stock price. They pulled in a lot of random merchants to their "Fulfulled by Amazon" (FBA) program. In essence, random small merchants with, say, 100 luggage sets, got a chance to try out getting their crap sold on amazon. Compared to last wednesday when they sold 1 pressure cooker, they sold thousands... gaining both new customers and new merchants. The stock wires seem to indicate that nearly all of the FBA merchants sold out.

Was it a garage sale? Pretty much... a wildly profitable one for many people. Expect to see it next year.

[FundieFarmer]

Is the warehouse sale different than the warehouse deals area? I've bought some stuff from Amazon through warehouse deals and been very pleased with most of my purchases. I did receive an electric oil-filled radiator through them that was DOA, but the return process and refund was just as easy as for the "new" side. I tried again and the second heater through warehouse deals worked great.

I bought some cat food and painter's caulk and noticed the digital credit for Prime members who selected slower shipping was $3 instead of $1 on Prime day. Even though I selected the slower shipping option, UPS brought my package today. That happens to me at least 50% of the time, so I usually choose slower shipping to get the credit. YMMV :)

Err, maybe it was the same? I'm not sure? I'm glad you had a good experience! By the time I got to the warehouse section, it was mostly just very obsolete technology. I was very confused, like I hopped in a delorean or something! I thought it was a one-day thing and that was all they had, but maybe the good deals there ran out as they did on the front page and that was what was left. As usual, FJ proves me wrong :lol: