Is it worth it? Some bargains are scattered in there, but most are a few dollars off
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LOS ANGELES – Christmas in July didn’t exactly happen Tuesday.
Amazon’s Prime Day produced lots of deals, and plenty of hype (the top trending hashtag on Twitter for much of the day was #AmazonPrimeDay) but many of the offers were in the $5-$10 off category. Few amounted to the equivalent of Black Friday “doorbusters, ” meaning bargains priced so aggressively customers were ready to bust through the virtual door to get one.
The sale, aimed at customers who spring for the $99 yearly Prime membership of expedited shipping, online video and music, listed 100,000 products on sale during a 30-hour sale that started Tuesday night.
But “if you take out Amazon products, most deals weren’t as rich as we expected, ” says Gene Alvarez, vice-president, research, for Gartner, Inc.
Amazon offered 10% off CDs, $1 off a bag of Tostitos chips and 21% off Bath Bombs (normally priced, $12.79) — meaning that this bubble bath alternative could be yours for a savings of $2.69.
Is it just me or are the deals not worth it? #annoyed #AmazonPrimeDay pic.twitter.com/JoAXPY1fm2
“Is it me, ” Twitter member @miss_malan posted in a tweet, “or are the deals not worth it?”
Alvarez says there are deals, “but you have to hunt and peck for them.”
For instance, Amazon offered its Amazon Echo speaker for $90 (regularly $179) , an Xbox One video game system bundle for $240 (normally $399) and a 65-inch LG TV for $3,000, down from $4,200. (And $800 less than what Best Buy was selling it for Tuesday.) Amazon’s Echo Dot, normally $49.99, was cut to $34.99.
Priceblink, a price comparison site, found that 40% of the deals were Amazon exclusives, meaning they were for Amazon-only products, while 20% were deals available cheaper elsewhere and that for the remaining 40%, Amazon indeed had the lowest price, by an average of 18%.
Still, just as with last year’s Prime Day, analysts were expecting a blow-out, easily topping the $500 million and $600 million of sales customers made on Amazon Prime Day 2016.
Unlike Black Friday, customers don’t benefit from many retailers getting into the discount game, a competition that usually results in some eye-popping pre-Christmas steals.
Instead, “If you’re looking for a TV and find a great price, you just got yourself a great deal, ” said Brendan Wichter, an analyst with Forrester Research. “On Black Friday, you shop around.
Amazon itself said the home, tech and food products were the most shopped, and that the company sold more than twice as many Echo devices than last year’s Prime Day. The company had no comment on the perceived lack of deals.
Amazon’s first try at Prime Day in 2015 was panned by some because too many deals seemed to be merchants clearing out unsold inventory, with Twitter, as it did in 2017, calling out garage-sale like goods such as shoe horns and granny panties.
#AmazonPrimeDay seems like the web shopping equivalent of a garage sale.
In the garage sale category, a 55-inch Element 4K TV sounds great—$399, down from $650, but it’s poorly reviewed, with just a 3.3-star rating out of five. A Sony 55-inch 4K TV also seemed like a great deal—$100 off at $499, but it’s last year’s model.
One new wrinkle found on this year’s Prime Day: the ad-supported smartphone. Off-brand smartphones were plentiful, and discounted, if you’re willing to watch some ads before you swipe to unlock.
The Alcatel Idol 5S iPhone 7 knockoff was $100 off at $199, but it comes at a price. Your home screen is controlled by Amazon, where you’ll see “offers and ads, including personalized deals and recommendations, ” before you can use it. Presumably to keep you shopping until next year’s Prime Day.
