Amazon Prime Days, the popular two-day flash sale event held each summer, kicks off tomorrow. But that hasn't stopped locally-headquartered big box stores from countering.
Target, with their so called Deal Days, is anticipating the Prime discounts and they're doing their own, especially in areas that are important to them inventories they need to get rid of in order to make room for back to school,” explains Paul Vaaler of the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Business and Management. “Best Buy's doing the same thing with, I think they're calling it Black Friday in July, essentially trying to evoke that sense of holiday shopping for them.”
Amazon Prime Days first began in 2015 as a way to drive interest in their service. Seven years later it’s become one of their most shopped days, rivaling only Black Friday. In 2021, the site did an estimated $11.2 billion in gross sales.
Target’s Deal Days started Monday, a day before Amazon's, as they try to capitalize off the sale. Best Buy’s sale started Sunday, each offering up to 50% off on certain items.
“And that's caused local big box stores, Target and Best Buy, to put up its own sale over the same time frame to try and match Amazon,” says Vaaler.
It's just one of what Vaaler calls “competitive initiatives”, as traditional box stores and Amazon jockey for position in the marketplace.
Amazon's latest foray into groceries, which is reportedly coming to Minnesota, is just the latest example of that, which will cause Target and other grocers to change how they operate and incentivize customers to come to them.
But while Amazon, Target, Best Buy and others fight for every dollar, Vaaler says it's all good news for consumers, especially now as most Americans are pinching pennies.
“It's providing more choice, it's tamping down inflationary pressures, it means that retailers have to get better at what they're doing and in the process of doing that would get better goods at lower costs,” Vaaler says. “Or to put it another way is, without costs rising as much, and that's really important.”
Amazon Prime Days starts on Tuesday.
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