Well, it’s that time of year again folks. Once again, Amazon’s annual sales event for which the already stupidly rich corporation is made even richer is upon us.
A formal date has finally been set for Amazon Prime Day 2021—we’ll get to that in a minute. For the mercifully uninitiated, first of all, good for you. Prime Day is effectively Amazon’s own personal Black Friday event, and this year it’s looking like it’s slated to take place around summer. There are deals to be had, for sure. But should you care? Read on for a crash course on the event.
So, what is Prime Day?
Again, Prime Day is like Black Friday but... not that. It’s always a multi-day affair, and you’ll be able to find steep savings on many products through things like limited-time flash deals. Because Amazon is the everything marketplace, deals are pretty all over the place. If you’re looking for a specific thing, like a certain computer model, you might hold off for a reliable sale window from that retailer (typically those crop up around the holidays).
If you’re less picky about a specific thing that you need or want, you might be able to find a great deal. But you also might have to keep checking back to find it.
Does this have anything to do with NFTs or Dogecoin?
No. God.
When is Amazon Prime Day 2021?
For a long time, the date of Prime Day 2021 remained unconfirmed, though we knew for sure that it’s set to take place before the end of the second quarter, and rumor had it that we’d be looking at sometime in June. That has, indeed, proved correct. Amazon announced on June 2 that Prime Day will start on June 21 at midnight PT (3 am ET) and extend through the end of June 22.
Prime Day is available to Prime members in the U.S., the UK, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Spain, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Netherlands, Mexico, Luxembourg, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, China, Brazil, Belgium, Austria, and Australia.
Can you even find good deals?
Well, that depends. If you’re looking for sweet deals on Amazon-specific products, like an Echo Dot, you’re going to find those gadgets at a steal. But again, the savings on non-Amazon products can be a little chaotic. Amazon, for its part, promises “over 2 million deals,” but it emphasizes the deals on its own products, particularly its services like Prime Video, Amazon Music, and Prime Gaming.
Are there any non-Amazon products I can expect to be discounted?
Well, since you asked, may I point you to Gizmodo’s coverage of the worst deals from last year? As I said, absolute chaos.
How do I avoid getting suckered into a bad deal?
Reviews can be misleading, so be wary. One option is to install an extension like Fakespot, which can help flag counterfeits and fake reviews. Another option is CamelCamelCamel, which tracks the price history of products on Amazon so you’ll be able to tell whether that “deal” is really a steal.
Should I skip Prime Day?
Well, yes. Amazon is a massive corporation that made Jeff Bezos the world’s richest man, and yet the company is constantly under fire for labor atrocities and union-busting. And then there’s that whole thing about the platform getting caught for selling literal trash. Not great!
Can you maybe plan to snag a few deals on smart home gadgets and probably a mountain of other shit you do not actually need? Yes, you most certainly can. But I don’t think you’ll be missing too much if you skip it this year. Your bank account will certainly thank you, at the very least.
Update 8:25 am ET, June 2: Amazon has finally announced the dates of Prime Day 2021: June 21-22, as well as a few more details. We’ve updated the post above to include this information.