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Amazon Admits Prime Day Deals Not Necessarily the Cheapest (bbc.co.uk)
Shoppers taking part in internet giant Amazon's Prime Day are being told that the deals on offer may not be the cheapest available. From a report: Amazon said it has never claimed that Prime Day is necessarily the cheapest time to shop on its site. It comes after consumer group Which? warned customers that apparent bargains are not always as good as they seem. It said some goods can actually be cheaper at other times of the year, and advised shoppers to do their research. The 36 hour sale -- aimed at subscribers to the Prime shopping service -- offers discounts on a range of goods. The deals are time-limited, with shoppers being told that some items are only available while stocks last.
Good news topic for, I don't know, Cosmopolitan magazine? Not a tech site or generally anywhere where there is no lack of common sense among the audience. We've known this as long as there have been "sale events" in retail. The fact that it is an online store does not suddenly make it different and certainly not "news for nerds".
Next thing you will tell us, it is not really worth it to stand outside stores for hours for them to open on Black Friday...
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Try camelcamelcamel to check the price over the last year and set alerts for the price you want. I have been using it for years.
(note: I am not associated with them in any way, I just find ti a really useful site!)
What? A retailer puts something on sale but they might put it on MORE sale some other time? Unheard of! Nobody in retail EVER does this.
Oh wait, this is normal practice. But "Amazon" - so somehow we need a mob with pitchforks.
I used to do pricing at Best Buy. 9 times out of 10, when something was put on ad, the only difference on the price tag was that it said "As Advertised" above the price, the price itself didn't change one cent.
The phrase 'on sale' doesn't actually mean 'cheaper', just that special attention is being brought to it. Yes, sometimes the special attention is a price reduction, but if you regularly watch prices you see that frequently it just means that they're featuring it in ad material.
Everybody loves a sale. Just look at the endless Presidents' Day car sale ads which somehow manage to run 12 months.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Some of Amazon's prices are just nuts. A cooler that I bought for $10.99 at my local supermarket goes for $24.99 on Amazon.
And most of the other seller's that use Amazon market place have ridiculous prices. A box of Oat Bran cereal is $6.00 plus S&H whereas that exact same thing is $1.99 at my local Kroger with no S&H. And the prices change all the time too; which royally pisses me off.
Prime is just psychological - to get people to impulse buy without shopping. And at $119/year, it is definitely NOT a good deal.
I'm starting to go out of my way NOT to buy from Amazon these days. Even books - I have a B&N near by and I can order from them and in 3 days have the book at no extra cost. Look at some of the books on Amazon and even though they may be discounted, with S&H they are more than buying locally.
I was chatting with a client years ago that was a jeweler (still in business). The subject of sales came up. I asked, so what do you do X% over cost? He said, Heck no! I triple the price then have a 50% off sale and I can't keep the shelves filled.;)
;)
Just my 2 cents
What is "prime" about today?
Its the 16th of July
Nothing prime about 16
Sure 7 is prime, , but that would make for a month long sale.
Exactly. Musk is going crazy. I mean, I know he is a narcissist but this is over the top. Slashdot needs to post a story on this.
every one since has been a fucking joke.
Musk shows up very briefly to get his photo-op and then has the nerve to bullshit and say, "I didn't see him there!" when talking about the diver.
And Musk has his panties in a twist just because the diver - someone who actually knows what he's doing - pointed out the fact that Musk's "sub" was impractical for the caves and the truth that it was all a publicity stunt.
The Thai's NEVER asked Musk for help. It was some twitter uses who asked Musk - I think the Twitter account that posted the request for help was Musk's.
Musk is mostly all show.
Musk is definitely in the wrong here- and you don't go and call the hero of an hour a peado without any evidence of the sort, just because you're angry.
Yeah, the diver was far from polite in his comments to Musk and might very well have a bit of a twat-side to him; but Musk was well out of line here and deserves a big smack around the ears. In general, I like Musk, he has popularized various aspects of science and brought technology to the news and public ear... but Musk is just being a massive douchebag over his failed Thai publicity stunt.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
ALL items are only available while stocks last, otherwise it's a pre-order.
Truth be told, there was nothing mentioned about 'being cheaper' in any of their advertising.
But your wallet was never meant to hold money. (What is it doing in there, anyway?) Let it go free! Let it feel that warm air of summer!
The same thing can be said about your bank account, but I think I should stop now.
I saw something on Twitter where workers in some countries were going on strike for better working conditions, asking consumers to boycott for the week, which I happily did. I use Amazon and appreciate that I can get some stuff there that I can't find for love or money locally, but the conditions their workers have to endure sound like they contravene a lot of labour laws, and boycotting during a mediocre barely-sale is literally the least I can do. I'm trying to find other sources for the things I want (B&H Photo, Best Buy) but for some things, it's literally impossible to get them anywhere else. Even for items that I CAN get other places, the buying experience is so bad for so many sites. It's really remarkable that almost nobody else has created a purchasing experience even half as good. (For example, I'm in the market for a new iPhone stand, and there's a nice $10 aluminum one on Amazon and I haven't seen it anywhere else yet.)
... items on "clearance" might not be super cheap!
(and might not be getting cleared out, for that matter)
Stay tuned to /. for more hot savings tips ...
The increased membership for Prime I think makes people buy from Amazon and not seek out the best deal elsewhere. I have noticed lately Amazon pricing appears to include a sort of shipping surcharge on top of some pricing. Because I have been able to beat their price and still get free shipping at other online retailers with a product that has a national set sale price. People need to be wary of Amazon's Prime days, since many products could be old stock, last years models or even refurbished product. Not everything is such a great deal, people should do their homework.
Even without the problem of counterfeit items being mixed in with their stock, tons of things sold on Amazon are much cheaper in local stores or even via web ordering from some of those retailers.
fencepost
just a little off
Personally, I heard enough of those kids in the cave in the past week and Musk (not only in the past week) to last me more than a lifetime, maybe we can last for a week without hearing about him?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Have you looked at what's "on sale"? I have seen less useless junk in 1-dollar stores. Just cheaper.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Nope. We should hear about it. A major tech CEO going bonkers is definitely news. Much better than hearing about "Prime Day" which is just a ploy to get consumers to spend their money and has been covered all over the media (including local TV, etc)
You can invent your own retail holiday, and people fall for it.
I got to hand it to Amazon, though... this is probably the smartest way I've seen to clear old inventory cluttering up their warehouses since the invention of the "Woot Off" on woot.com before Amazon bought them. Who knows... it might have been the same marketing guy who came up with Prime Day.
Then why would I wanna hear it here, too? I come here because it's not just another news outlet that drones the same bullshit as all the rest.
At least that's what /. used to be. A long time ago.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Because it is News for Nerds. Musk is the king Nerd. Tech CEO. Visionary. Engineer. That is why there are so many Musk articles on here.
So we need one more? Whatever. But this isn't the firehose, wrong subpage.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I've been a prime member since 2010. Almost without fail, one item will have auto-selected "overnight" at extreme cost, instead of defaulting to the free 2 day delivery (which is becoming a joke as they add drop shippers who aren't that slick). Anyone who uses Alexa or one click ordering probably never gets a chance to switch back to WHAT YOU ALREADY PAID FOR. I've seen 30-$60 "overnight" rates on $5 junk added to an otherwise $100 order. Watch your back.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
Amazon has long-since implemented the "switch" part of the "bait and switch" scam. They've lulled their users (not "customers") into thinking Amazon has the lowest prices and locked them in with Prime. And now they've started jacking-up prices to milk the herd. Fools.
I routinely beat Amazon's prices, including shipping, on smaller shopping sites and eBay. Most of those vendors don't (yet) charge sales tax either.
I guess Bezos has to pay for the 10,000 year clock...
And you know this because?
Oh, right, because "brown people".
Reading reviews on Prime, it feels like I am the only person that thinks the video is garbage. More than 90% of what I want to watch cost extra. I wasted an hour one night trying to find something decent that was free. Where is all this great free content that everyone raves about?
Early in my career I worked for an online retailer. The algorithm for any sales was always the same and very simple: raise the RRP so that the price after all the sale discounts matches your usual price. I don't expect it to be any different this time.
Hodgson Oat Bran $9.97 on Amazon
$2.19 at Kroger
Why do people lie when you can look it up on the Internet.
Indeed.
One more? The musk story hasn't been posted on here yet! Not every musk story is the same this one has major implications for Tesla
He might have to resign
How about your president becoming a putin shill. how about that for how aboutism.
Anything you buy from a retailer is a ripoff thats a known fact. Example: All T-shirts cost less than $2 to make, whether in China or the US. This is a fact even the highest end cotton fabric sheets sell for $1 per pound wholesale (which itself is a ripoff when you consider that cotton costs 50 cents a pound) .. there is no way making a T-shirt out of that costs more than $1.
So why is a T-shirt a lot more than $2? Marketing and logistics. Amazon has that locked.
Amazon hails itself as a technology company but at the time you can't search prime day deals on the web nor their app.
Then I guess you could submit the story and if it's interesting it will be upvoted.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.