Amazon's Prime Day Deals Are Often an Illusion

Yet another Prime Day has come and gone on Amazon, and tech writer Geoffrey Fowler of the Washington Post has some bad news for those who pulled the trigger on purchases. They might have gotten snookered. "The prices during the sale aren't always better," he writes. "I've got the receipts to prove it." Fowler ticks off multiple examples, like the Oral-B electric toothbrush marked as 39% off that was actually the same price as in August. Or the TV stand he'd been watching that jumped in price to $379 from $275 the week before Prime Day. The latter was not pushed as a "big deal," but it suggests retailers are trying to take advantage of the extra eyes.

For his piece, Fowler examined receipts of more than 50 Amazon items he bought over the past six months, then compared them with prices on Prime Day. The same $14.99 shirt he bought in July was listed at the same price even though it was hawked as a 25% discount. And on and on. "My overall potential Big Deal Days savings: a mere 0.6 percent. And that doesn't include the $139 annual fee to be a member of Amazon Prime." Yes, tariffs and inflation might explain some of this, but Fowler (whose newspaper is owned by Amazon's Jeff Bezos) agrees with the sentiment that Prime Day is generally better for Amazon than it is for consumers. Read the full column.