Read This Before You Shop Amazon Prime Day

The only one benefitting from Prime Day is Amazon (and affiliate marketers)

Venice gets it.

I want to let you in on a little secret. Amazon is NOT losing money on Prime Day. Last year online shoppers spent a record-setting $14.2 billion (up 11% from the year before). According to BofA analysts, this year’s Prime Day event could bring in $21.4 billion.

A study in 2022 found that Amazon increased prices ahead of events like Prime Day, making it seem like there’s a steeper discount when in reality it’s just the regular price for the item, which ultimately “allows sellers to simultaneously achieve higher profit margins and a larger sales volume at consumers’ expense.”

In 2024, the “typical observed Amazon Prime Day shopper was a high-income suburban female age 35-44.” And “88% were members of Amazon prime.” But here’s the thing, Amazon would not be a multi-billion dollar company by giving away deals to millions of shoppers. Amazon uses their Prime membership not only to guarantee a steady stream of revenue with the fixed fee ($139/year), but because they know Prime members will spend more money, more often.

Not surprisingly, Amazon is increasing and in some cases doubling commission for influencers on Prime Day in a variety of categories including jewelry, beauty, and home goods. If you are seeing a lot of influencers and media outlets pushing their “must-have” Amazon Prime Day recs, it’s because they stand to make a whole lot of money from it. The disclaimer language for affiliate links usually states “by clicking through these links we might make a small commission”, but what it doesn’t tell you is in sum, those small commissions equate to thousands of dollars. Try and find data on how much influencers and media outlets make from Prime Day. You can’t, because no one wants you to know.

---

If you enjoy my newsletter and appreciate my work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. I extended my subscription sale ($50 for an annual subscription) an extra day. The only way I monetize this newsletter is with paid subscriptions. I don’t use affiliate links and I don’t do any paid ads with brands. Thanks for your support!

---

Amazon is a union busting, tax avoiding, climate destroying, worker exploiting monopoly, that crushes small businesses and surveils it’s employees and customers. As we all know by now, Amazon also donated $1M to Trump’s inauguration fund. Sure there are companies that are worse, but how low is the bar these days, really?

Amazon sells convenience, the shiny word used by tech companies to make us believe they’re making our lives easier. We are overworked, exhausted, stressed, and tired. Convenience is why many of us say we use Amazon and purchase Prime memberships. Convenience is killing us — in the destruction of our planet and natural resources, in the erosion of human connection, and in our inability to focus, pay attention and think critically. We don’t need Amazon, we are made to believe we do.

It wasn’t until I cancelled my Prime membership and quit shopping on Amazon that I realized I ended up spending less money and creating less waste. For a long time I justified shopping on Amazon in the name of convenience and cost savings when honestly, it resulted in neither (and I live in a rural state without easy access to a lot of things).

You probably already know this, because almost everyone does by now, but Amazon doesn’t pay taxes. Despite the federal tax rate being 21% and the corporation bringing in $59.2 billion in 2024, Amazon paid $0 in federal income tax in 2017 and 2018. In more recent years, Amazon has deployed tax avoidance tactics by doing things like this:

…while the company reports apparently modest profits from its retail sales (excluding Amazon Web Services), the company conceals massive profits from its third-party “Marketplace” sales by generating huge, predatory losses on its direct Prime sales. In other words, the company is intentionally selling retail items at prices so low that it’s generating tens of billions of dollars of losses. The inevitable consequence is that its retail competitors will be forced out of business so that Amazon can offset those losses by charging retailers huge fees to sell their products on its third-party Marketplace platform. This is a recipe for the slow strangulation of the competitive retail marketplace—and the creation of a retail monopoly for Amazon.

Amazon is famously a union busting corporation. They use fear tactics, intimidation, increased security and a literal “union-busting arsenal” to prevent their workers from unionizing so they can exploit them at every turn. The documentary Union (trailer below) tells the story of how one group of Amazon workers attempt to unionize in Staten Island. Despite the film winning dozens of awards, it can’t get distribution because everyone is afraid of Amazon’s retaliation if they do.

It’s quite frankly hard to fathom the kind of money and power Amazon has amassed. Jeff Bezos is the third richest person in the world. As I said the other day experts “estimate that between the years 2023 and 2025, Bezos made about $8 million per hour. He just spent $50 million on a wedding, and owns a $500 million super yacht. He also, does not pay federal income taxes. In 2011, Bezos claimed and received a $4,000 tax credit for his children, he was worth $18 billion at the time.

I don’t know, maybe none of this matters to most people. Not enough to actually cancel Prime or not shop on Amazon. It’s hard to be a conscious consumer these days when so many corporations are doing so many evil things. Wealth inequality is at an all time high and corporate profits in this country are soaring. The total net worth of all U.S. households is close to $160 trillion and the rich half of this country owns 98% of it. The system is fundamentally broken.

I’m not trying to shame anyone for shopping on Amazon, truly. The same way I don’t put blame for the destruction of our planet on individuals, when we know it’s at the hands of corporations and industries. But we all still play a part, and we get to choose how. You could spend $58 on Prime Day (the average order) or you could take that money and buy a book at your local bookstore, chat with the shop owner, grab a coffee on the way, and use the rest at your local farmer’s market. As they say in Bluey, “what goes around, comes around.”

---