Amazon’s annual shopping event, Amazon Prime Day, officially begins Tuesday, July 12 at 3 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. PT and will run through Wednesday, July 13, the company announced today. We knew it would be July thanks to a previous earnings call, but now Amazon Prime subscribers know when to set their watches.
This year’s Prime Day is a few weeks later than last year but maintains its summer timing, unlike during the peak of the pandemic in 2020 when Amazon pushed the event back to October. And if you’re in the market for toys, tech, housewares, or just about anything else, this might be one of the best times to start saving money outside of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday holiday shopping season. It’s almost a guarantee that we’ll see some of the lowest prices yet for Amazon’s own products, as well as discounts on a selection of other technologies. Early deals begin June 21, when Amazon offers up to 55 percent off a range of Amazon devices, including the latest Kindle Paperwhite, the fourth-generation Echo Dot, and a host of other products.
Amazon didn’t provide specifics on the offer, but it said the 48-hour sale will offer “the lowest prices ever” on select products from Beats, Bose, Sony, iRobot and a range of other well-known brands. If years past are any indication, though, we can expect many of the offerings to come in the form of robot vacuums, noise-cancelling headphones and 4K TVs, among other types of electronics. Amazon is also offering a plethora of additional promotions during Prime Day, including free games through Prime Gaming, discounts on services like Amazon Music Unlimited, and more.
As in previous years, Prime Day offers are available to Prime members residing in the US as well as a number of other countries including Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, UK, Poland and Sweden. Amazon also plans to hold Prime Day events in India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt later this summer.
Despite the positive fanfare surrounding the event, Prime Day comes at a turbulent time for the company. Since the massive influx of online shopping during the pandemic and throughout Prime Day and the 2021 holiday season, there have been numerous reports of the appalling working conditions faced by Amazon’s warehouse workers and delivery drivers. Now the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) is working to unionize more warehouses as Amazon continues to come under scrutiny from the New York state government over the treatment of workers.
The harsh reality is that while Prime Day is sure to bring a barrage of deals and discounts, it’s also increasing the workload of warehouse workers and delivery drivers, who have been known to skip breaks to meet quotas. We’ll just have to wait and see if this year is any different, especially as New York moves ever closer to cracking down on Amazon’s production quotas.
Update June 15, 1:47 p.m. ET: Updated with additional information on the specific offers Amazon plans to offer and the various promotions it will be running.