Amazon Sets 'Black Friday in July' Date

Describing it as "a global shopping event, offering more deals than Black Friday," Amazon announced yesterday that the second annual Prime Day will take place Tuesday, July 12, for Prime members in the U.S., U.K., Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada and Austria. Last year, the online retailer reported that Prime Day was the biggest day for sales internationally up to that point.

Others were less impressed. USA Today noted that the event "sounds promising, if you forgot that last year's Prime Day wasn't exactly the summer Black Friday of our dreams.... Between reports of glitches and the quick disappearance of Prime Day's best offers, the overwhelming consensus following Amazon's first Prime Day was disappointment.... The big reason? The handful of really good deals were snapped up quickly, and what remained was a hodgepodge of randomly discounted items that left many users upset."

Shelf Awareness chronicled some of those negative reactions to Prime Day 2015, as well as Chicago's Seminary Co-op Bookstores counter-programming with its "Co-op Day" promotion.

Yesterday, Money magazine anticipated the Prime Day announcement with a report from the mega-retailer battlefront: "Last summer, almost immediately after Amazon announced Prime Day... Walmart jumped into the mix by hyping its own special sales and shipping deals. This summer, before Amazon has even officially announced a 2016 Prime Day date, Walmart is trying to beat Amazon to the punch with a new promotion offering fast, free shipping for 30 days, plus widespread discounts throughout the summer to boot."

In what was described as "an obvious swipe at Amazon's Prime Day--when the deals are strictly reserved for Amazon Prime members," Money noted that Walmart.com president and CEO Fernanda Madeira wrote in a blog post: "Our rollbacks typically last 90 days or longer while supplies last. In the spirit of Independence Day, the prices we'll be offering will be available for anybody: Liberty and Low Prices for All."

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