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Artificial price increase so that you can post “discounts” on Prime Day

Amazon Prime Days ran on July 16th and 17th (at least here, in Canada).

This price jump happened a day before and ended two days later, but this item was “on sale” during those two Prime Days.

I’ve been seeing this scam far too often, especially with food items. Why isn’t this illegal yet?

SonicDeathTaco , (edited )

I took a screenshot of my wishlist a few weeks before Prime Day. During Prime Day, about half of the items had Prime Day discounts but only three of them where actually cheaper. The best discounts I found were on other smaller web stores trying to compete with Amazon on Prime Day.

can ,

It is illegal in Canada. Enforcement is the issue.

Showroom7561 OP ,

Of course. And since enforcement is basically non-existent, it doesn’t matter how illegal it is!

CanadaPlus ,

It’s semi-amazing how feckless our government is when it comes to anything related to market fairness.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Camelcamelcamel.com kind of sucks in terms of their search, but they will find you the best price for things on Amazon.

Showroom7561 OP ,

I never liked CCC for some reason, not sure if it was the UI or what. Been rocking Keepa for many years without any trouble. I set price notifications for items that I can wait for, but usually check price history for everything else.

I’m actually glad that the Amazon wishlist also tells you that an item is now priced lower than when it was added to the wishlist. It makes it a little easier to identify price drops.

Evotech , (edited )

It’s illegal in Norway. Items must not have been at the discounted rate at least 30 days prior

barsquid ,

Don’t Norwegians miss out on having the freedom to get conned? And sure, this sounds good for the citizens, but what about the magic line we all worship? I think it might harm the line.

Evotech ,

We get scammed in a lot of different new ways :)

Hawk ,

I think this applies to the EU too.

altima_neo ,
@altima_neo@lemmy.zip avatar

I noticed a vevor mixer that usually goes for a bit under $500 was on “sale” but the price hasn’t changed, and the regular price went up to $650. Now that prime is over, it’s sale price increased to $550.

Pretty lame.

Having said that, though, I did find some things I wanted for cheaper than usual, that I needed.

driving_crooner ,
@driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br avatar

Years ago, I wanted to buy a new TV, in the middle of October. My wife said that we should wait to black Friday but I told her that black Friday was a scam so I bought it right there. I keep following the price of the TV and how is slowly but surely rise price every other day, until black Friday when it got a 40% discount and was still more than I paid a month before.

pearsaltchocolatebar ,

Plus, many manufacturers make black Friday specific runs with cheaper parts, so it’s possibly as expensive for a worse product.

plz1 ,

it’s feature of retail/capitalism. You just have better tools like Keepa to showcase this scam, now.

Showroom7561 OP ,

Keepa

This one browser extension has likely saved me thousands over the years. Since most of my purchases can wait, I’m often scoring the true lowest price for an item when I do have to buy something.

dmtalon ,

One of the many reasons I dropped Prime in January when my annual subscription ran out. I now avoid amazon where possible, or for certain things I’ll group them up until I have enough items to get free shipping and order that way.

No prime day garbage No more “oh, let me order this thing I don’t really need that will get here in a few hours”

spaghettiwestern ,

80% of the items I considered had either jacked up the price prior to prime days, or advertised a large discount when the actual discount was tiny - a few percent. I ended up buying nothing. Amazon sucks.

CodexArcanum ,

I had a DVD box set in my wishlist for a while. It was “50%” off during the sale, but I think the price actually went up by about $10. I did still snag a bunch of movies for under $20 each, which at least feels like a good price.

v4ld1z , (edited )
@v4ld1z@lemmy.zip avatar

Another reminder why you shouldn’t be using Amazon

Showroom7561 OP ,

I think most stores do this. But with Amazon, you can at least use a browser plugin to actually know when you’re getting a good deal.

That said, if I could avoid Amazon, I likely would.

TacticsConsort ,
@TacticsConsort@yiffit.net avatar

Lol yep. Literally Amazon 101, there’s a very good reason you shouldn’t buy from them unless you HAVE to.

Showroom7561 OP ,

I do score some very good deals on Amazon, but I also use a browser plug-in that lets me get a notification once my desired price has been reached. I always look at the historical charts, though. Some items are constantly going up and down in price. At least we have that option with Amazon, and not so much with our local grocery stores :(

apfelwoiSchoppen ,
@apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world avatar

Fuck Amazon. I never use them and my life hasn’t materially changed one iota since I stopped like 5 years ago.

Showroom7561 OP ,

In the last 5 years, Amazon (for me) has had lower food prices than nearly all local grocery stores for certain items. The "trick’ is to park those items in a wishlist and set a notification for when the price drops to a level you are willing to pay (via browser add-on), then you can really save a lot.

But for most items, it’s a gamble to assume you are getting the lowest price, even when they are on sale. But then again, I think most stores play the same games, so consumers are always on the losing end no matter where they shop.

kersploosh ,
@kersploosh@sh.itjust.works avatar

Some brands do this continually. That’s how Eddie Bauer or The Gap is constantly having a 30% off sale on one thing or another.

And it works. It’s called “price anchoring.”

Showroom7561 OP ,

I think many companies will put sales on overpriced items to make it seem like a deal, but it’s hard to catch the ones who inflate the prices just before a sale happens (which brings the sale price down to the regular price). The latter is a bigger problem, IMO.

dogsnest ,
@dogsnest@lemmy.world avatar

Put a few items on your wishlist, and watch the fluctuations, even without prime days.

Overall, you save a buck or two on prime days, that’s all.

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