Amazon is planning an early summer sale as a prequel to Prime Day

Shawn Knight

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Staff member
Why it matters: Amazon may be planning to push back its annual Prime Day sale this year as Covid-19 still lingers but shoppers will apparently have plenty of opportunity to buy goods on the e-commerce platform in the coming weeks.

As outlined in a document sent to sellers this week that was seen by CNBC, Amazon is preparing to host a summer sales event that’ll start on June 22 and last between seven to 10 days. Participation in the event is by “invitation only,” the memo reads, and is designed to help drive excitement and jump-start sales.

The event has been given the working title of “Biggest Sale in the Sky” but that hasn’t yet been finalized, we’re told. Sellers invited to participate have been asked to supply Amazon with items featuring a discount of at least 30 percent, CNBC noted.

No word yet on which specific items will make it into the sale or if it’ll be open to non-Prime subscribers.

Amazon has historically hosted its summer sales event, Prime Day, in mid-July. This year, however, Covid-19 upended operations. As orders spiked in the early days of the pandemic, Amazon halted shipments of ordinary items to focus on moving household staples and medical supplies. Even with a huge hiring spree, some items saw delays in shipping out of up to a month. Only in recent weeks has Amazon started getting back to business as usual.

An early summer sale – perhaps in addition to Prime Day a few months later – could help third-party sellers move inventory that sat dormant during the first couple of months of the pandemic.

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Amazon can keep their crap.

They shipped me my 8TB HDD in a timely fashion, but they packed it in a cheap bubble envelope. HDD didn't safely survive the trip. The HDD powered up and was recognized, but it made an awful clicking sound as it ran.

Returned it - complained to customer service about how poorly the item was packed. Said they need to pack it properly in a box with packing material to prevent the HDD from getting damaged. I asked for a replacement to be shipped out.

Replacement showed up a couple days later.....in a cheap bubble envelope like the first one did. I wrote in black marker all over the envelope that the item was refused due to improper packaging and I asked for a refund. Got the refund a few days later.

I then went to newegg.com and ordered the same HDD (spent about $10 more) and it showed up, packed properly in a box with packing material to keep it secure and safe. No issues with the HDD.
 
If you order anything right now, you'd better make sure they deliver it to you in your hand - or it might get jacked.
 
So far Prime Day has been a bust for me every year. I never find anything worth buying. Its like a giant online clearance sell filled with bargain bins.
 
Amazon can keep their crap.

They shipped me my 8TB HDD in a timely fashion, but they packed it in a cheap bubble envelope. HDD didn't safely survive the trip. The HDD powered up and was recognized, but it made an awful clicking sound as it ran.

Returned it - complained to customer service about how poorly the item was packed. Said they need to pack it properly in a box with packing material to prevent the HDD from getting damaged. I asked for a replacement to be shipped out.

Replacement showed up a couple days later.....in a cheap bubble envelope like the first one did. I wrote in black marker all over the envelope that the item was refused due to improper packaging and I asked for a refund. Got the refund a few days later.

I then went to newegg.com and ordered the same HDD (spent about $10 more) and it showed up, packed properly in a box with packing material to keep it secure and safe. No issues with the HDD.

Amazon was an absolute nightmare to deal with when buying stuff for clients at work. We constantly got poorly packaged and damaged stuff, or just the wrong item entirely.

It is a digital flea market.
 
Amazon was an absolute nightmare to deal with when buying stuff for clients at work. We constantly got poorly packaged and damaged stuff, or just the wrong item entirely.

It is a digital flea market.

They've been really bad for years and I use them less and less.

5-6 years back I ordered a wall mount for the 40" TV. The box itself was nearly 36" long and weighed a good 30 pounds. I had also ordered a couple of PC games on the same order. Amazon was kind enough place the TV mount inside a box nearly 5ft long and also put the PC games in the same box. There was no packing material used....so you have this 30 pound box inside a bigger box sliding around during shipping as it smashed the PC games to pieces (literally, the game disc were crushed into a few dozen pieces).

Couple years back I ordered a few toys for Christmas - Amazon simply took the toys off the shelf, slapped Amazon shipping labels all over the actual toys' boxes and tossed them on the truck to ship....guess Santa ships through Amazon, now. I returned the items and just went and bought the same toys at my local Target for an extra $50.... Small price to pay so the toys weren't littered with Amazon shipping labels that couldn't be peeled off.

Kicker is, less than 5 miles from my house is an Amazon warehouse facility, yet anything I order always ships from out of state. If Amazon offered pick up at their facility I'd be more than happy to drive over and pick up orders if items were available. This way no crude packing and destruction of products as they bounce around on planes or trucks.
 
They've been really bad for years and I use them less and less.

5-6 years back I ordered a wall mount for the 40" TV. The box itself was nearly 36" long and weighed a good 30 pounds. I had also ordered a couple of PC games on the same order. Amazon was kind enough place the TV mount inside a box nearly 5ft long and also put the PC games in the same box. There was no packing material used....so you have this 30 pound box inside a bigger box sliding around during shipping as it smashed the PC games to pieces (literally, the game disc were crushed into a few dozen pieces).

Couple years back I ordered a few toys for Christmas - Amazon simply took the toys off the shelf, slapped Amazon shipping labels all over the actual toys' boxes and tossed them on the truck to ship....guess Santa ships through Amazon, now. I returned the items and just went and bought the same toys at my local Target for an extra $50.... Small price to pay so the toys weren't littered with Amazon shipping labels that couldn't be peeled off.

Kicker is, less than 5 miles from my house is an Amazon warehouse facility, yet anything I order always ships from out of state. If Amazon offered pick up at their facility I'd be more than happy to drive over and pick up orders if items were available. This way no crude packing and destruction of products as they bounce around on planes or trucks.

It is not an Amazon package unless it has travelled from A to Z.
 
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