Of Course Amazon is Lying to You

Have you heard the latest?

It turns out that the widely announced discounts on Amazon's "Prime Day" are a wholly manufactured artifact of price increases in the weeks before the highly hyped event.

What, you mean that Amazon is f%$#ing its customers?

Well, knock me over with a РС-28 Сармат missile.  (Specific cases fully documented at the link)

Amazon Prime Day is a four-day sale promoted by the mega-retailer as a rare opportunity to secure "deep discounts" on a variety of consumer items. In reality, Amazon deploys deceptive tactics to exaggerate its markdowns and create a false sense of urgency. Featured items are often available at similar or lower prices at other times.

Nevertheless, major media outlets produce a massive number of "articles" promoting Amazon Prime Day, as if it is a genuine news event. This isn't an accident. Amazon provides financial incentive for news organizations to produce this content.

………

List price inflation has been a systemic issue with Amazon Prime Day for years. In 2022, the New York Times' Wirecutter reported that, for many featured items during Prime Day, "the 'before' price is artificially inflated to make it seem like you’re getting a bigger discount than you really are." In 2019, Fast Company found that "prices are often artificially raised" before Prime Day and other Amazon sales "only to be dropped to create the 'discount.'" In 2017, a company that sells foot deodorizers said that Amazon almost doubled its list price "on Prime Day to make it look like people were getting a discount, when they were actually paying full price." A 2017 study by Consumer Watchdog found "61 percent of all reference prices were higher than any observed price charged by Amazon in the recent past 90 days."

Amazon also engages in a variety of tactics to imbue shoppers with a sense of urgency to buy items right away. This might explain why the company insists on continuing to call the event "Amazon Prime Day" even though it now lasts 96 hours. The idea is to communicate that if a consumer does not buy something now, they will end up wasting money by buying it for a higher price later.

Once again, I feel compelled remind you that if an employer treats its own employees like sh^%, they will treat their customers like sh%$.  

Amazon treats its employees horribly.

'Nuff said.