Imagine Black Friday weekend with all the deeply discounted merch your wallet can muster, but without the throngs of surly shoppers who got up in the wee hours to queue for the doorbuster savings. That’s what June 20 to June 23 is shaping up to be, courtesy of a host of retailers eager to compete with Amazon for its famed Prime Day event.
Of course, Prime Day is a bit of a misnomer. Amazon isn’t dedicating its deals to just one day, but they are still solely for Prime members who pay for the privilege of access to said deals (to the tune of $13 a month, or $119 annually, or $7 a month for a Prime Student membership).
Other retailers have sagely surmised that not all shoppers want to be on the hook for an annual fee, so they offer their deals as they would any other special sale event. Among those angling to grab wallet share are Walmart, where the Deals for Days lasts for 72 hours. Target similarly dubbed its event Deal Days; it runs from June 20 to June 22. Best Buy’s Bigger Deal Saving Event is aptly named because it began on June 15 and continues through June 22.
Not to be outdone, Home Depot, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Gap Factory, Old Navy, Buybuy Baby, and even furniture e-commerce site Wayfair and pet-needs purveyor Chewy have jumped on the discount bandwagon.
When you factor in the cost of membership, the price differential works in the competitors’ favor. For instance, Macy’s is offering an Instant Pot Duo Plus, six-quart, nine-in-one, One-Touch Multi-Cooker for the same sale price as Amazon: $54.95. Amazon is touting the convenience and year-round availability of low prices to sweeten that pot. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
Given what we know about consumer confidence and spending—the latter of which increased 11.3% in the first quarter of 2021, on the heels of a 2.3% rise in the final quarter of 2020—there’s likely plenty of spending to go around now that we’re less focused on panic buying of toilet paper and other essentials.
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