WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — Amazon Prime Day runs through the end of the day Wednesday. It has become one of the biggest shopping holidays of the year because so many companies have followed Amazon’s lead and offer deep discounts.
If you want to take advantage of this consumer Christmas in July, we aim to provide you the information to get the best savings.
QUESTION
Does Amazon have the best prices during Amazon Prime Day?
SOURCES
Kimberly Palmer, senior writer, NerdWallet
ANSWER
Amazon has the lowest price on many items during Amazon Prime Day, but it may depend on what you want to buy.
WHAT WE FOUND
No store will always have the best prices on everything, but that holds true for Amazon during the event it created.
WUSA9 compared nearly a dozen popular products that Amazon, Target, and Walmart all carried. Amazon had the lowest price for five of them, Target had the lowest price for four, and Walmart had the lowest price on three of them (one was a tie between Amazon and Walmart).
Kimberly Palmer, a senior writer for the consumer finance company NerdWallet, said competitors also offer big discounts right now to fight for your money.
"Small businesses, too," she said, "because Amazon Prime Day is such a big event that a lot of other retailers follow suit, and you can find a lot of deals during this time period, not only on Amazon."
QUESTION
Are certain products more likely to be heavily discounted during Amazon Prime Day?
SOURCES
Kimberly Palmer, senior writer, NerdWallet
ANSWER
Yes, some products offer better deals than others.
WHAT WE FOUND
Not surprisingly, Palmer explained, Amazon wants shoppers to buy its most profitable items during Prime Day.
“The lowest prices that we see on Amazon Prime Day on Amazon-branded products," she said. "So if you're in the market for anything like an Amazon Fire TV or a Kindle, anything in the Amazon family of products, that's when we see that the lowest prices today on Amazon Prime Day.”
Palmer said electronics are also well-priced during Prime Day, but if you want other popular gift items like video games or appliances, you might want to wait for Black Friday.
QUESTION
Do you have to pay for a membership to get Prime Day savings?
SOURCES
Amazon
Target
Walmart
ANSWER
Even though Amazon and Walmart market their discounts to subscribers, shoppers do not have to pay to get the deals.
WHAT WE FOUND
Amazon offers its deepest discounts to Amazon Prime members, Walmart gives preference to Walmart+ members, and Target saves its biggest sales for Target Circle members.
Amazon and Walmart offer free trials of their membership services, and Target Circle is free to join.