Are You Ready for Prime Day?

If you haven’t already started reviewing Amazon’s extensive inventory, you can shop til your fingers drop on Amazon Prime Day from 12:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time tomorrow, July 16. This year the July shopping spree for Prime members ends Wednesday, July 17 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.

The first Amazon Prime Day was on July 15, 2015 in honor of Amazon’s 20^th Anniversary. That’s right, Amazon opened its digital doors on July 16, 1994. Now, after 30 years, it seems as if Amazon’s brown packages sporting the Smile logo with an arrow from A to Z have always been delivered to our doors. But in 2015, it was a novelty to order products without having to go into a store, even if the product was a book. I once lived in a town without a book store. I had to order books through book club catalogs and wait several weeks for their appearance. But, I digress.

So, yes, Amazon started shipping in 1995 with the motto Get Big Fast and the slogan Earth’s Biggest Bookstore. There was another company that sold books on line, but only Amazon delivered them.

How Amazon Became Amazon

Why is Amazon called Amazon? It might have been called “Jeff’s Books,” or its original name—Cadabra. Turns out, the word Cadabra sounded too much like cadaver. And I’m pretty sure “Jeff’s Books” was never in the running. In 1995, websites were alphabetical, so having a name that began with the letter “A” was a good marketing plan. [Back in the days of telephone books, names like “Acme” were popular for the same reason.]

Legend says Jeff Bezos named his new company after the world’s largest river as defined by the volume of water it discharges. The Amazon was the world’s biggest river, and Bezos wanted to build the world’s biggest bookstore. He did more than that. Excluding ebooks, media and services, Amazon is now the world’s biggest online retailer with over 600 million products listed. Amazon sells 12 million of these with third-party sellers supplying the remainder.

Amazon even carries “tiny houses” – some with free delivery and easy payment plans. More about that on my next blog.

In March 2023, Amazon’s web site attracted 2.4 billion visitors. “Window shopping” has never been so convenient.

In 2005 Amazon introduced Prime, a subscription service that includes free one-day, two-day and, in some cases, same-day shipping, video streaming, gaming, groceries, Whole Foods discounts, and various other perks for members, including being to shop on Prime Day. Globally, Amazon Prime has over 200 million members.

From Customers’ Carts to Their Doorsteps

Amazon’s product delivery system is based on fulfillment centers. Once a customer places an order, it is transmitted to a fulfillment center where it is packed into boxes. The packages are loaded onto large trailer trucks for the drive to an Amazon air site. Once the plane lands, the products go to a sort center to be organized by zip code, and loaded onto trucks going to delivery stations. Next the products go into delivery vehicles which could be USPS, UPS, or FedEx and routed to the customer’s door.

Sometimes same-day delivery is too slow. So in July 2022, Amazon introduced Amazon Prime air drones that, in certain regions, can deliver products within an hour. If you look closely, you’ll see the drone above is carrying a package labeled Amazon Air.

A recent blog by Adlucent says 61% of Americans start shopping on Amazon, because a.) they can see almost every possible product, many with reviews, in one place; and b.) Prime membership gets them free, fast shipping. The most popular shopping categories are electronics, home goods, and books.

The shopping experience has come a long way since the first Sears Catalog appeared in 1888. More about that consumer revolution in my next blog.

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Sandra’s Books: Ambition, Arrogance & Pride. Saxon Heroines. Two Coins. Rama’s Labyrinth.

Illustrations & A Few Sources

Cats in Amazon boxes by Sheila Sund; Amazon Prime logo by Amazon.com; example of tiny home by Ben Chun; Amazon Prime Air by MarcelX42; Amazon Prime Now logo by Jay Suresh; Amazon delivery drone by Wikideas1. “Why Consumers Pick Amazon.” Adlucent. Patrick J. Kiger. “How Does Amazon Deliver Stuff So Fast?” How Stuff Works. Aug. 9, 2022. Christopher McFadden. “A Very Brief History of Amazon: The Everything Store.” Interesting Engineering. Mar. 17, 2023.

The post Amazon Prime Day & Other Trivia first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

How did Black Friday become a national event?  Why do we put ourselves through this annual ritual?  We can shop any day, any time.  This is America, after all – it is our sacred right to shop 24/7.  So, what makes Black Friday special?  Why do we crawl out of bed at 4:00 a. m. so we can be in line for a door-buster special?  Because it sort of feels like a tail gate party?

Nah!  It’s because we give gifts in December.  You knew that!  A gift at any other time is not as special – we can’t compare our stack of lovely presents with the stacks enjoyed by other people.  When I was a child, my mother said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  No child and very few adults actually believe that.  So, how did our present gifting frenzy begin?

Once upon a time, some people celebrated Christmas by giving gifts.  Depending on one’s social standing, the gift could be a beautiful emerald ring, a bag of gold, or an orange.  Orange?  Yeah.  Oranges were rare and wondrous things.  Children might receive a small toy made out of wood, or a doll lovingly assembled.

Fast forward a few hundred years.  People began to shop at department stores – stores so large children and even grown-ups got lost.  Department store owners like Mr. Bergdorf and Mr. Goodman loved Christmas, and told people that if they valued their family and friends, they would buy them presents, and wrap them in bright paper.  They told parents that Santa Claus was real, and if they loved their children, they would buy them so many presents the children would have tantrums of joy before collapsing with exhaustion.

Holiday shopping started after a quaint celebration called Thanksgiving.  Americans said their prayers on Thursday.  The next day they hit the stores.  Americans shopped and shopped and shopped.  They bought presents for everyone – the milkman, the hairdresser, the neighbors, their children’s classmates.  Storeowners rubbed their hands in glee.  It was the magical time of year when they made pots of money.

Alas, all was not well in Retail Land, because Thanksgiving was on the last Thursday in November.  In 1939, this left only 24 days before Christmas.  Compassionate businessmen begged President Franklin D. Roosevelt to move Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday.  Calendar makers were aghast!  They had already printed calendars for the next two years.  Federal and state celebrations conflicted.  Retailers lobbied.  Finally, on December 26, 1941, Congress passed a law making Thanksgiving the fourth Saturday of November. (Note: This was after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  You might think Congress had more important issues to consider.)

Starting today, you have 24 shopping days left before Christmas.

The post Thanksgiving & Holiday Shopping — Two American Traditions first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.