I have actually scored a couple of good experiences on Prime Day this year. Was able to purchase an Echo Show for only 70 cents after an Echo first generation trade-in and the Prime Day discount. And, Amazon customer service agreed to give me a $90 adjustment in the form of a store credit on a Wi-Fi mesh router system I purchased a month ago, but haven't set up yet. So, I am $89.30 ahead. I'm sure I'll find something enjoyable to spend that on.
Last year, Prime Day was not favorable for me. I kept landing on those 'Meet our dogs at Amazon' placeholders when pages would not load.
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“Sales” like these are turning everyone into hoarders and destroying our planet.
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Consumers have a lot of power if they choose to use it. Amazon is exploiting our consumption craze, but we are consumption-crazed. I have a Prime account because I became crazed, and then I fixed it. I now take great care in planning purchases. I always purchase local even if it is reasonably more expensive. I only buy from Whole Foods very occasionally. I buy from Amazon that which I actually need, can afford, and can't find locally. I am assuming many people do this too. I encourage others to try it.
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One of the reasons I have a Prime account is I am tried of the treatment received in most box stores. You learn quickly that you know more about the product than the sales associate knows. Plus you get treated rudely and learn that he or she is more interested in stocking shelves. They don’t get it that customers spend money which pays the bills including their wages.
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Looks like another great day to buy nothing online.
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Amazon is now more about fake sales and scams, in my experience, and about clogging Manhattan's streets with third-party delivery vans.
Amazon has become the worst exploiter of the American infrastructure and it's all run by an acknowledged adulterer whose only interesting deed was buying The Washington Post and turning it into an exploiter of free-lance children who write "opinion" articles for token pay.
I boycott Amazon and wish others would.
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If corporations are people, then pay your fair of taxes like the rest of your fellow citizens.
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Crazy Eddies, the consumer electronics chain in the NY Metro area was known for its Christmas in July sale which was ‘insane’.
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Amazon uses infrastructure to deliver - maybe they need a user fee for VMT ?
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To celebrate Amazon Prime Day I will buy a book, in person, from a local book shop.
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Ha. I've owned Arcadia, my own retail gift store, for nineteen years and beat Amazon on a daily basis - I offer FREE shipping on everything on my website every single day, no minimum order required, and I don't have to charge sales tax on orders shipping outside of Massachusetts since I have no physical presence outside of Provincetown. Added pluses - I don't charge $120 a year for "free shipping", nothing I sell is even ON Amazon in the first place, AND everything I sell is ethically sourced, hand crafted and sustainable. Try THAT on Amazon. Not gonna happen.
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@Jay Gurewitsch South Dakota v. Wayfair
I'm not a Amazon Prime member, but I do shop on Amazon.com quite a lot, because I loath the retail store experience. I am so sick of dealing with rude retail workers and cashiers. I used to make minimum wage and deal with customers. I never acted the way some of these workers act. I quit shopping at Walmart in 2015 after a bad experience. I haven't bought anything from them since. I'm also tired of seeing dogs in stores, so I avoid Home Depot and Lowes as much as possible.
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@Mark
Mark, if the dogs you are seeing in the stores you mentioned are not clearly marked as "Helper Dogs", as the animals assisting blind people, I would certainly have the same complaint. These dogs are clearly marked, and clearly marked so that there is no doubt as to their status. They are protected by law, and provide an invaluable service. If not so marked, the individual bringing the dog into the store, and the store itself, are in violation of the law, and will be held liable.
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My husband and I are not in our 14th year of running a small fiber arts business - selllng, of all things, handweaving looms and tools, spinning wheels, knitting and weaving yarns, books (specialty titles), even repairing spinning wheels and promoting old fashioned methods of processing flax straw into linen fabric. We have never had a loss year. We sell online, but without the usual buy now buttons and special offers, do mail order, do walkin and word of mouth - offer payment terms 30 days net, payment by check preferred. We do appear as vendors at events and trade shows, but only a few times a year. It has worked really well for us and our customers. We have never needed to worry when someone came into the shop that a "turnaround" was necessary - we are successful enough that if a visitor doesn't find anything they want or need, they can leave and our business doesn't suffer.
This is my personal way of sticking my tongue out at the touted "business model of Amazon and big box retail" - a well stocked, customer focused, laid back place to browse, buy and/or learn - without the pressures of modern branding and sales tactics. And the best part of it is that I feel good about it all.
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@Sara
There are several different retail models that play in their own sandboxes. There is the department store with a little bit of everything, the variety store with a narrow focus but a wide range of products such as agriculture products, or tools and hardware, boating supplies, mail order is important to expanding the customer base. There is the corner convenience store that stocks frequently needed products. Finally, there is the specialty store that fills a niche, such as fiber arts or craft ice cream, cheese or beer. Amazon and Walmart are not niche players. They play in the department store and variety store sandboxes and are expanding into the convenience store sandbox.
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@Sara That first sentence should read ...and I are NOW in our 14th year...
People just don’t care about the environment huh? More driving, boxes, packaging and plastics all sitting inside idling vans as the delivery human rushes from house to house. What a life. I’ll take a walk to goodwill and see what has been donated after these consumers last years purchases.
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@George
The problem with a treasure hunt at the local Goodwill is you take what they have and not what you want. I would spend a half a day every week looking for books at Goodwill. I purchased a good many books that I was not looking for, but the price was right. I now buy all my used books online for a slightly higher price, I get exactly what I want, delivered to my door. I shop Amazon and Walmart online and get exactly the products that I want, selected from a wide variety.
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Materialism in America is at an all time high. Americans need to wake up to the reality that nothing they can buy will fix their spiritual problems. One wonders how much longer people will be obsessed with having more and more material goods and buying more things they don't need. A reckoning is long over due.
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@Joe,
Wait till they need to downsize in the coming years, it will be quite an eye opener for them.
I downsized not long ago and boy was that an experience! The things you think you can't live without are finally seen, once all is said and done, as a millstone that has been weighing you down.
I applaud your insight into this situation.
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Tphe priorities some people have are so absurd. I need to be informed o, n the news that Amazon has a sale, as if it's a cultural event? Please....
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I do not have an Amazon prime account, and I do not wish to have one because of the way they treat their warehouse workers. I do not purchase things through Amazon anymore so I'm glad other stores are giving sales to try to keep up. Though I wish they didn't have such a stronghold on the retail community...
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This is the first I’ve heard of amazon prime day. Why are you running a commercial for it? You can criticize it sure - but this is still a commercial for it, intentional or otherwise.
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@Bjh I'd say Prime Day is newsworthy given Amazon's scale and the fact that many other retailers feel the need to respond to it. The article is substantive and not at all a rewritten press release. Drawing attention to something is in no way a "commercial."
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@Bjh It's a bit naive to suggest it doesn't qualify as news appropriate for the Business section -- especially if it's driving other retailers to follow suit. By that reasoning, the Arts section does nothing but 'run commercials'!
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In the UK, France and other European jurisdictions, sales/discounts seem to be limited to designated windows by law, and perhaps as a result are much broader/simpler than what you find in the US. Seems to be the norm for retailers to have no sales during most of the year and then put everything at half off for 2 weeks in July/Aug and Jan. In my experience this has been every retailer/department store at the same time (not sure of online sales there).
Surprised no mention or comparison to that practice has been made or apparently studied, or if so at least not mentioned here.
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