Why We are NOT Covering Prime Day This Year

Prime Day is Here

And in Our Opinion, it is Over-Hyped

Tomorrow, July 17 2018, is officially Prime Day.  This year, Amazon decided to start it early, so the deals officially began about an hour ago.  And as soon as the deals began, Amazon's site crashed.  Viewing Prime Day Deals seems to be a hit or miss affair.

Almost every site on the Internet is covering Prime Day.  Techlaurels has decided not to, for a couple of reasons. First of all, there are plenty of sites that ARE covering Prime Day, and most of those sites are inundating our mailboxes with "Prime Day Deals" Newsletters, it's almost verging on spam. And second of all, I just do not think Prime Day is anything that special.

Prime Day began in 2015, as a kind of warehouse clear out for Amazon.  Similar to many other "Christmas in July" type sales, Prime Day brings shoppers to the site in an otherwise slow shopping month.  Despite the fact there were not a whole lot of deals on products folks actually wanted, the first Prime Day proved so successful, Amazon decided to make it an annual affair.

But back in 2015, Alexa and her entire family of Echo devices were brand new.  They were barely out of the "Prime customers, by invitation only" purchasing stage. Generation 2 Fire Tablets were also new, and already lower priced than most competing models.  Offering a device already considered REALLY INEXPENSIVE at 40%  off made thousands of Fire Tablets fly out of the warehouse.  In 2015, Amazon put A LOT of their own branded devices in the hands of those who otherwise would not have bought them.

Amazon devices continue to be great deals every Prime Day.  They are discounted to the degree that many upgrade a device they really don't need to upgrade, just because they are so cheap.  I must admit, that is why I personally own both a Gen 1 and a Gen 2 Fire Tablet...at $35, it was almost a no-brainer to upgrade a device with such improved features. Now I have two tablets I hardly use, except when traveling, and the first one lives on my nightstand and acts as my alarm clock and white noise machine.

I’m pretty flush with Amazon devices now. Having an Echo Plus would be nice, but do I really need another Alexa device in a small townhouse that already has 2 dots, a Gen 1 Echo, a Dash Wand, Fire TV stick, and a Fire Tablet?  Not really. Is the Fire TV Cube cool? Yes. Do I hate my Harmony Hub enough I feel a need to replace it? Also no.

Year 1, I bought that Fire Tablet. Year 2, I bought a box of band-aids. Year three, I bought a router. This year, I bought some shampoo that was half price and spent my no rush shipping credits on some movies. 

Prime Day has always been a good day to buy Amazon devices, and also for them to clear out the old stock before announcing the new stuff for the Holiday Season. Like with my Gen 2 Fire Tablet, which I purchased just a few months before the Gen 3 devices were released.  Last year, Amazon Echos were greatly discounted, only for them to announce the Echo Plus a couple of months later. Suddenly, that old Gen 1 Echo did not look to be as sweet of a deal.  

Smart Plugs, Smart Bulbs, SmartCams, and other Alexa-compatible Smarthome devices are all good buys this Prime Day, but mostly if you buy them bundled with an Echo device. Other than that, I've actually seen better sales on TP-Link an Wemo devices outside of Prime Day.  Other than that, it’s a LOT of hype for a ton of so-so deals.  

I'm skipping Prime Day, for the most part, this year...