January 1, Amazon Prime Day Deals EXPOSED as Price Tricks

Wyatt’s Take

• Amazon hiked prices right before the sale so their “discounts” look bigger than they really are.
• Smart shoppers check price history before clicking buy on anything.
• Real savings show up on Amazon’s own products like Fire TV sticks and Ring doorbells, not third-party goods.

You want the most bang for your buck and Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days promise plenty. But after editing your haul and beating the clock to get half-off AirPods, Dysons, and KitchenAids, nothing ruins a retail-therapy high faster than discovering those deals were fake.

Phantom discounts when manufacturers hike list prices higher than ever to create the illusion of a sale when they slash it do not save you money. But you can arm yourself with a few tricks to determine whether an Amazon discount is the real deal.

You have probably been inundated with ads and promos for this two-day event for weeks. There’s even a countdown clock on the site like we’re seconds away from the New Year. Do we get time off work for this? Scrub your schedule! School’s canceled! Shelter in place in an internet bargain basement with 70% of Prime members and more!

Racing against the clock among millions of other users easily creates the sense of scarcity and urgency, whether it’s real or not. Not content with living in the shadow of its Prime Day sister every summer, Amazon’s fall discount blitz is like Fashion Week for people in sweatpants who don’t feel like leaving the sofa just to snag deals on sofas and sweatpants.

From 40% off Le Creuset to hundreds off MacBook, AppleWatch, Ninja, HexClad, Cuisinart, and more, Amazon’s deals look insane. And now, they’re mind-bogglingly tailored to your tastes thanks to AI.

“Hey girl,” the $500 supersonic hair dryer you’ve been thinking about for months seems to say. “I’m 50% off. Put me in your cart. You work so hard, you deserve it.” It would be a sin against your split ends and your community not to “proceed to checkout” with a disgustingly steep discount. Right?

As an Amazon Prime member and frequent shopper at the world’s largest internet store, I consider myself an expert in this field. I dug around to find out what’s really going on behind Prime Big Deal Days because after launching Prime Day in 2015, the company is still dropping prices like they’re hot. Or, at least, it’s acting like it.

It’s up to retailers to keep it real on those discounts, but there are ways to secure your scratch. To quote the Beastie Boys when it comes to those special offers, “Check-ch-check-check-check-ch-check it out” before heading for the checkout, and vet that price history.

It might not seem like the most trustworthy source at first, but Amazon’s AI assistant Alexa for Shopping provides some insight into what your item of choice has recently cost. This helps you gauge the true value of the latest advertised discount.

I tried this on a randomly selected item, just to see what I might find. A Hisense 55-inch TV was listed at $449.99 as an Early Prime Big Deal 40% off its typical retail price of $749.99. After clicking the light blue “price history” button to the right of the sale price, Alexa for Shopping showed me that “$449.99 is the lowest in the past 30 days.” Cool! If I were in the market for a 55-inch TV to binge “East of Eden,” I might buy it before it sells out, right? Not so fast.

A helpful graphic shows me that the TV was priced at $474 at the beginning of September, jacked up to $750 for a few days in mid-September, dropped down to $500-ish for a week or so before its final resting place at $449.99. Compared to early September, this so-called deal is a measly 5% off.

Not exactly the thrill ride any of us were hoping for. But it’s also a reminder we should never be paying more than around $450 for that TV. This isn’t the kind of deal that demands an immediate buy.

The price history for an early discount Dyson vacuum also revealed a list price ($389) that was much higher than the deal price ($269) for the vacuum, which typically sells for that lower number. They’re counting on us being too hyped up about catching the sale before it ends to notice.

If it’s not an item you regularly purchase (for which you’d more easily spot a price drop), you can also back up your findings by researching the product at other retailers. But a free Amazon price tracker like CamelCamelCamel.com offers a more comprehensive look at cost over years and all you have to do is enter the URL from Amazon.

You can also add the free plug-in Keepa to your browser to help track the prices of your favorite items. Certain categories of sale items will also offer you the best chance at genuine savings. Stephanie Carls, brand spokesperson for Retailmenot, explains the strategy behind Amazon’s discount event of the year.

“Amazon devices are the most reliable category,” Carls says, naming Ring doorbells, Fire TV sticks, and Kindles. “These go on deep discount every Amazon Prime Day without exception. We’re talking 40 to 60% off on products that Amazon makes and sells directly.” Third-party brands get trickier. That’s when you’ll definitely want to double-check the price history.

Carls also suggests keeping an eye out for personal beauty and skin care products, which usually have strong showings. “You have brands like Dyson hair tools, Clinique, and high-end skin care that rarely discount anywhere else,” she says, also suggesting you’ll find meaningful savings in kitchen and home products such as coffee makers, robot vacuums, and stand mixers.

“SNL” parodied a Prime Day event, asking a delivery driver if she had any work-life balance. She replied with wild-eyed enthusiasm, “Once a week I order an Amazon package to my own address just so I can drive by my house and wave to my kids!” Godspeed, Amazon warehouse workers and delivery drivers. Sounds like we’ve got some shopping to do.

Wyatt Matters

Hard-working families deserve honest prices and real value, not marketing tricks that empty wallets faster than they fill shopping carts.